After the release of the movie "Master Brother", many viewers were surprised, originally thought that it was a pure action comedy movie with fists and feet, and used violence to control violence in schools, but after watching it, it was found that the action factors only occupied a small part, and it did not seem to be like the Zhen Zidan movie in the impression. It seems that the lead actor Zhen Zidan is using his own actions to tell everyone that he does not want to be an action actor who only knows how to swing his fists anymore, and his choice indicates that the transition period of Chinese action filmmakers has really arrived?
The 55-year-old Zhen Zidan has long passed the age of physical peak, this peak age is still calculated by action actors, usually fighters or other professional athletes in competitive sports, 26-30 years old is the peak, 30 years old is a veteran, and action actors because they do not need to maintain high-intensity confrontation, the action life expectancy will grow a lot, but then grow to 50 years old, speed and strength have begun to decline. Transform or change the action style to play the kind of action scenes are not many masters, big bosses, usually the fate of such actors, such as Shi Jian of the year, later noon horse, etc., Zhen Zidan has passed the peak year, can turn over at the age of 45 with a "Ip Man", once again set off the boom of Chinese kung fu films, has been regarded as a turnaround.
At the age of 45, he turned over with a "Ip Man". The picture shows the stills of "Ip Man".
With the gradual enrichment of the material and spiritual life of the whole society, the gap with foreign countries has narrowed rapidly, and the bridge section that relied on force to counterattack in the past is no longer the number that everyone likes, not to mention, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan and then to Jet Li, the audience has long been aesthetically tired. Although Zhen Zidan has not given up on the exploration of action scenes and communication with the audience through the lens of action skills, his influence has always been in a single group of action movie fans, in 2005's "Kill the Wolf", 2007's "Fuse", he first introduced the concept of mixed martial arts into Chinese action movies, bringing a realistic breakthrough in Chinese action movies, but this did not change the cruel fact that action movies continue to decline.
From the beginning of the transformation of "Ip Man", Zhen Zidan found his own new way, a more full and connotative and understand the role of life is what the audience wants to see now, Zhen Zidan finally relies on the role of Master Ye to penetrate the hearts of the people, but he also understands that he should be the last generation of stars who rely on kung fu to go to the front line. Because the big times have changed, Hollywood, South Korea, France, etc. have long learned the routines and techniques of kung fu films and action movies, and play more sound and color, and the apprentice Kenji Tanigaki that he brought out has become the first martial artist in Japan, with the live-action version of "Langke Sword Heart" setting up a brand name, Chinese action movies are no longer the only one, for fighting has long been outdated, turning action into an element embedded in the right movie at the right time, is the action filmmaker should consider things, The complete retreat to the second line has led to the fact that it is impossible to replicate the fame of purely by skill.
Zhang Jin in "Kill the Wolf 2".
For example, Zhang Jin, an action actor who has gained attention with "A Generation of Grandmasters", has a very good appearance and skills, and has countless prison warden circles in "Kill the Wolf 2", and although the action scenes have brought him into the ranks of the main actors, he has no chance to rely on action scenes to join the ranks of first-line movie stars. And Wu Jing relied on Hollywood's military commercial films to find another way to stand on his own, not to take a simple action route, because everyone understands that the times have changed.
Zhen Zidan in this "Spicy Teacher" style of "Master Brother", as a retired special soldier to teach problem students, he wants to bring the change of combat technology to himself in life to bring others, the action should be hidden, the people who practice boxing are what they look like in life, most of them are restrained themselves, strictly resist meaningless violence, because understanding violence to know how to control violence, prevent violence, this is the real element of life, rather than a word on the fight, Zhen Zidan repeatedly expressed this view later in the film.
Zhen Zidan is one of the few play scenes in "Master Brother".
This time there are only two fight scenes in the whole film, Kenji Tanigi did the martial finger, needless to say, Zhen Zidan's actions are first-class in the world, there should be some, when to stop when the power is just right, all in place, the locker room and the classroom that fight is the best action design this year is not excessive, make full use of the weight of the body to complete the various wrestling methods fall into place, full of vitality. And the rhythm is in place, just right, degenerating the action into an element of the play, rather than the theme, highlighting its own literary part, which is very similar to another world-class superstar, Dwayne Johnson. Johnson, a professional wrestler, has a very strong athlete style, and when he first entered the filming industry, he could basically only play some berserkers with serious faces, and there was basically no sign of change, from "Scorpion King" to "Mighty Eight Directions" to "A Cool End". In those years, it was almost thought that Johnson would continue along this route, and there would always be your play path, but it would always be a fixed face role, an action role, and there would be no change.
Dwayne Johnson (first from left) in Reinvigorated BallWind.
Until 2006's "Reinvigorate the Ball", Johnson played a shelter director, a bunch of problem teenagers into a team, through the efforts to regain a new life story, this movie Johnson almost no action scenes, he played a strong enough mentor in the heart and body, through his own efforts to motivate children to grow, the force "internalized", more through their own aura to infect others, this aura only experienced a lot of martial arts training, heavy athletic training people have, not angry feeling. Truly intelligent action actors will grasp the use of this aura to transform themselves, Jackie Chan in 2009's "Shinjuku Incident" used this aura to make himself look like the Chinese leader of Kabukicho, and Jet Li also used this aura in 2007's "Cast Name" to suppress pang Qingyun's complex character, if you rely on action alone, at most to the effect of a general.
Zhen Zidan is obviously also aware of this problem, rather than simply changing the action and fighting against the increasingly realistic 3D technology and editing technology, it is better to explore itself. Their generation of action filmmakers is actually lucky to some extent, because they have also experienced a period of rapid modernization of film technology, but also need a lot of live-action wrestling period, the accumulation of a lot of shooting experience is that later actors do not have the opportunity to have, and these experiences also let them fully know how to fight, how much to fight, to what extent when shooting action scenes, which is still a rare wealth for a large number of fashion and costume movies, but to take a back seat in the future. Not every actor can do it.
Poster of "Zhang Tianzhi" that has not yet been released.
Zhang Jin, who has emerged over the years, has the famous martial finger Yuan Heping's "Zhang Tianzhi", Wu Fan also starred in "Wild Beast", and the previous supporting roles want to go through the route taken by Cheng, Li and Zhen again, but even with the same method, the same investment, the same publicity, can no longer have the same effect, Xiang Zuo's resource advantage is good enough, right? More than a decade ago, it has long been popular, but now it is still tepid is the best proof. Sometimes just like Nokia, you haven't done anything wrong, but the world has changed, you don't have any way, maybe this time Zhen Zidan's change can give the whole Chinese action filmmaker a revelation, so that everyone can continue to survive. Xu Haofeng understands that martial arts have been written out, so his works deconstruct the real status quo of all martial arts and martial arts have gained attention, and what Zhen Zidan and these filmmakers have to do is to show the real attitude and way of life of people who practice martial arts in the movie, restore life itself, which can adapt to the mature fan group.
Poster of "Ip Man 4" that has not yet been released.
This situation is not only domestic action actors, the whole world is the same, the veterans of that year, Shange Yunton, Steven Siegel has long faded out of the screen, even if the UFC queen such as Ronda Rossi can only play a single role type again, Thailand's Tony Ja in recent plays are also more and more focused on literary drama, difficult transformation, Kitano Takeshi has long faded the cloak of swordsman in gangster movies. South Korea has the fastest transformation, and basically handles the action scenes of each movie very well, so that actors who can't fight can fight as realistically as possible, this idea is the most worth learning. And many people in China are still hoping to restore the martial arts era of that year, relying on martial arts routines to conquer the audience, which is unrealistic. Another Zhen Zidan highlight "Ip Man 4" that is expected to be released within this year is said to be the last in the series, the final banner of this Chinese kung fu film, and also announces the end of a martial arts-based film era, although the Chinese kung fu film as the only genre film was once the pride of the Chinese, but there is no need to feel sad because of this, because this group of people has changed the world film world after all, so that the films of all countries have kung fu elements in it, this significance and contribution is huge, It is also worth the filmmakers' pride. To complete the mission, you have to return to the original, and this does not represent the demise of action movies or even action movies, have you not seen that action movies have long been determined as a form of film? Wasn't that the biggest success? We once led the world in this regard, why not take the lead once, leading everyone to collectively transform and develop the "post-action film era" route?
Author: Yang Tian (Film Critic) Editor-in-Charge: Alpha Sauce Graph source network