Wen | Ling Fox Bo Guang
Chinese cinemas have finally ushered in the Dragon Boat Festival, and finally ushered in a wave of new films.
There are many movies in this, but one of them should be the most attractive to fans, this movie may not be too high at the box office, but fans are inexplicably looking forward to this movie.
That is, the crime film "Tropical Past" starring Ning Hao, producer and director Wen Shipei, and starring Peng Yuyan, Zhang Aijia, Wang Yanhui, Zhang Yu, Jiang Peiyao, Lu Xin, Chen Yongzhong, Deng Fei and so on.
This movie can be said to be very good in all aspects, the cast has Peng Yuyan, Zhang Aijia, Wang Yanhui, cameo Zhang Yu, etc., anyway, there is no "traffic star" in the actor.
Although the director of this film, Wen Shipei, is a newcomer, Ning Hao's producer and this plan still reassure fans.
This plan is the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Plan" initiated by Ning Hao, when a total of 10 young directors had to be supported, and so far there were Lu Yang of "Embroidered Spring Knife 2", Wen Muye of "I Am Not a Medicine God", the Olympic bid of "Beneficiary", and then this "Tropical Past".
Ning Hao's plan to support young directors, the level of newcomer directors can be said to be quite high.
I personally watched this movie for the first time, and it is safe to say that the quality of the movie is quite high. Although director Wen Shipei is a newcomer, he is quite old and spicy in the control of genre films and anti-genres, and in time he will be a major director of domestic genre films.
"Tropical Past" is limited to the theme box office and will not be able to explode, but if there are more such excellent genre films in domestic films, I believe there will be a better future.
What is the problem with domestic movies? If you summarize it, top literary films are too scarce, and commercial blockbusters are even entertainment to death.
After 2010, this period of time, domestic films are literary and artistic films, literary and artistic films are not GOOD, commercial films, commercial films are dancing wildly.
1. If there are too few awards for literary and art films, Chinese audiences will envy Korean films
Literary and art films are Jia Zhangke, lou Ye represents the sixth generation of directors through the peak period, although there are also films such as "Long Day" and "Heaven Is Destined", but in the end it is not as good as the previous decade.
A director who is one generation (or half) behind the sixth generation of directors, the results of this literary film are far inferior to those of their predecessors.
Among them, it is worth mentioning such as Diao Yinan, "Daytime Fireworks" won many awards for genre films, and the young directors who rose behind were Bi Gan of "Roadside Picnic", Gu Xiaogang of "Spring River Plumbing", etc., and their results were a lot worse after all.
Anyway, in the past 10 years, the literary and artistic films directed by the directors of the two sides of the strait and the three places are really not good, and they are certainly far inferior to the previous ten years, let alone twenty or thirty years in advance, which was the peak period of Chinese film literary and artistic films.
It is precisely because there are fewer films that have won awards internationally, and the Korean film "Parasite" won the Palme d'Or in Cannes and the Oscars in the United States in 2020, and Chinese netizens will frantically mock a wave of domestic movies.
(In fact, Chinese audiences are quite divided about domestic films winning awards at international film festivals, and if they can't get awards, they envy foreign films and taunt you, and when they win awards at international film festivals, they scold China's backward films to please foreigners).
2. Chinese commercial blockbusters dance wildly, and the box office and quality of movies never match
The real rapid take-off of the mainland film market was after Xu Zheng's "Tai 囧" broke through 1 billion in 2012, and it has only been 7 years so far.
China's film industry, before 2002's "Hero", of course, need not be said, before Xu Zheng's "Tai 囧" in 2012, until Guo Fan's "Wandering Earth" in 2019.
Anyway, in the past few years, the overall level of Chinese commercial films is very bad.
After 2012, the film market has won high box office directors such as Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", Xu Ke's "Di Renjie", Zheng Baorui's "Journey to the West", Xu Chengyi's "Catch the Demon" and other costume magic blockbusters.
Mainland director Guo Jingming's "Little Times" series, Zhao Wei's "To the Youth We Will Eventually Pass Away" set off a "painful youth" film. Then there are Xu Zheng's "囧 Series", Ning Hao's "Heart Flower Road Release", "Charlotte Troubles" and other comedies.
China's commercial blockbusters really began to rectify the chaos, or after Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior 2" in 2017, the box office king of the Chinese film market began to be the work of young Chinese directors.
"Wolf Warrior 2", "Hello Li Huanying", "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending", "Wandering Earth", "Detective Chinatown 3", "I Am Not a Medicine God" and so on.
Although the film at this time is much stronger than in the five years around 2010, the problem is still very obvious.
Although commercial blockbusters have heavy industry blockbusters such as the "Wolf Warrior" series, "The Wandering Earth", "Red Sea Action", and "Nezha's Demon Child Descending", they have greatly promoted China's film and television industry.
But compared with Hollywood commercial blockbusters, there is no "Star Wars" series, "Lord of the Rings" series, "The Matrix" series and so on. It is the kind of work that has made great breakthroughs in the film and television industry, and also has a huge breakthrough in film genres and film art.
Hollywood blockbusters are powerful not just in one or two series, but in a very large number. Under the accumulation of decades, it is even more profound.
I believe that the problem of Chinese literary and art films does not need to be talked about much.
Of course, this police crime film is very early to go back, especially Hong Kong movies, and there are a lot of excellent police films, crime films and gangster movies.
In the 8090s, there were still many police films and crime films in the mainland, and many netizens may not have paid attention to one thing, because of the "restriction" reason, the decade from 2000 to 2010 was almost extinct in the film market.
Note: This is a police crime film with a mainland story made by a mainland director, not the kind of Hong Kong police film introduced to the mainland for release.
One of the most striking examples is Ning Hao, the executive producer of "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics", who directed the crime film "No Man's Land" that was pressed for 4 years and revised many times before it could be released.
However, two years after the end of Ning Hao's "No Man's Land", Chinese police crime films ushered in two blockbuster works that had a far-reaching impact on the future.
One is "Daytime Fireworks" directed by Diao Yinan in 2014, and the other is "Burning Heart" directed by Cao Baoping in 2015; the former won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and Liao Fan won the Film Emperor; the latter Deng Chao won the Golden Rooster Award for Film Emperor, and the three leading actors all won the Shanghai Film Festival Film Emperor.
The different achievements and different film styles of these two films also seem to have influenced most domestic police crime films later.
Later, we gave birth to "The Pursuer", "Blizzard Is Coming", "Bursting Silent", "Hotpot Hero", "South Station Party" and other masterpieces.
Of course, there are also many works of general quality and word of mouth, such as the "Calm Wind and Waves" starring Zhang Yu in 2020.
In any case, we can clearly see that police crime films have become the most mature domestic genre films after 2010, the most mature film language, the most suitable choice of actors, and then the most mature story plot and core expression.
This movie of our "Tropical Past" can be said to be clearly presented.
First, in the language of the film, the style is distinct and distinctive.
The cinematic language of Once Upon a Time in the Tropics is very obviously similar to the neon aesthetic of "The Party at South Station." The film has the temperament of a neon aesthetic crime film everywhere, and the film was filmed in Guangdong, and the time setting is a summer night in the late 90s when the film was stopped.
Rain, heat, homicides, black humor and anti-genre temperament.
The second is that actors only choose the right ones, not traffic stars.
The protagonist of the movie, Peng Yuyan, lost 30 pounds in order to fit the role, the heroine Zhang Aijia is one of the representative actresses in the peak period of Taiwanese films, and Wang Yanhui is a golden green leaf with very strong acting skills, not to mention Zhang Yu's cameo.
The film story and characters, killers, orphans, policemen and blind people show a lot of special chemistry.
Peng Yuyan's acting skills are still almost meaningless, this role should be mentally painful in the whole movie, wanting redemption and with a bit of beastly trapped beast fighting, Peng Yuyan did not perform this feeling.
Third, in terms of story plot and core expression, there is a breakthrough in grounding.
There are no spoilers here, "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics" may not be a god work in the same kind of domestic crime films, but it is still a very good crime film. Personally, I think that losing "Daytime Fireworks" and "Burning Heart in the Sun" is probably the same as Diao Yinan's "The Party at South Station".
Personally, I think the new director Wen Shipei is very impressive, and his debut can be so amazing.
If domestic films can be made as well as police crime films, of course, literary and artistic films and commercial blockbusters should also be required to be filmed well.
But we can first make a large number of excellent genre films with different themes, and the cornerstone of domestic films will be much more stable.
Finally, I hope that ning hao's bole is more and more, wen muye, Lu Yang and Wen Shipei are more and more new directors, and bad monkey 72 has more and more plans to support young directors!
I also hope that there are more and more excellent genre films such as "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics".