Wen | Ling Fox Bo Guang
July has already passed a third, and there are many new films in theaters that are very lively.
However, for many real fans, many movies that have not been released in domestic theaters and circulated on the Internet have caused more discussion among film fans.
The crime film "Wisdom Teeth" directed by Zheng Baorui and starring Lin Jiadong, Liu Yaser and Li Chun is such a movie.
Since the first trailer of this film has been circulated, many "Hong Kong film fans" are very excited, and the first few months were shortlisted for the Berlin Film Festival, with the word of mouth of the first wave of filmmakers who have seen the film, the quality of the film has been pushed to a very high height in the fan group.
The reason is also very simple, this is a dark and extreme stylized Hong Kong crime film. Compared with the Hong Kong police blockbusters that have been released in the domestic market in recent years and often have a box office of 1 billion, it has rarely returned to the temperament of "Hong Kong films".
This so-called temperament is larger in scale, darker, cuter, and so on.
This has aroused the feelings of a large number of "Hong Kong film fans", especially the carnival-style discussion under the constraints of the mainland market.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > Wisdom Teeth: extremely sharp image style, simple storyline</h1>
The storyline of this movie is simple and really simple, the film is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous mainland crime writer Remy, and the novel of Remy, who is most familiar to Chinese audiences, is the "Psychological Crimes" series.
The story of the film is probably that there were several murders in Hong Kong, the victims were all young women, and the two victims found earlier had their left hands cut off.
The police officer in charge of the case, Zhan Ge (played by Lin Jiadong), has a lot of experience in handling cases, but a young leader Ren Kai (played by Li Chun) has been parachuted in above. Role configuration is a common pattern of veteran cops with experience but emotional problems leading new cops, with new cops sticking to their faith influencing old cops.
They found that the deceased were all marginalized people and had their left hands broken. When he went to the social welfare agency to investigate, Brother Zhan met a young girl named Wang Tao who left, and immediately threw away Ren Kai and followed him.
Wang Tao is also a marginal woman in the mixed society, when she stole a car to sell to the gang, Brother Zhan drove to the two sides and had a chase, and later Brother Zhan caught up with Wang Tao under the bridge and directly pulled out a gun and pointed it at her head. At this time, Ren Kai arrived and handed over Brother Zhan's gun.
Ren Kai only learned that Wang Tao had "driven a car to take drugs" and knocked down Brother Zhan's pregnant wife, and he thought that even in this way, the police could not abuse lynching, and said to Brother Zhan that he would wait until he thought about how to be a policeman before returning the gun to you.
On the other hand, Wang Tao was afraid to escape in the car overnight because of Brother Zhan's affairs, but dreamed of the original car accident in the car. Her conscience was highly condemned and she chose to get out of the car, and when Brother Zhan and they once again found a female corpse according to the clues, Wang Tao stood on the periphery and said sorry to Brother Zhan, you forgive me.
Brother Zhan was very angry when he saw Wang Tao and kept beating her violently. But Wang Tao was willing to be an informant for Zhan Ge, and also said the names of many gang bosses he knew.
Brother Zhan took them to see his wife, the original car accident child miscarried, the wife also became a vegetative person, Brother Zhan can be said to be in pain. Ren Kai didn't speak when he saw this scene, and wang Tao's inner sins became even deeper after seeing it.
Brother Zhan did not forgive Wang Tao in this way, and arrested all the gang bosses she exposed to confront Wang Tao, resulting in Wang Tao's identity being exposed to the bottom of society and not being able to live, and then being violently beaten and bruised all over the body.
Brother Zhan did not forgive Wang Tao, but found that the newly discovered female corpse was an illegal immigrant without identity, and the murderer was likely to be a drug dealer when he took the initiative to call Wang Tao and asked her to take them to find the drug dealer.
When Zhan Ge met with these gang figures, he did not shy away from Wang Tao at all, resulting in Wang Tao being hated by these gang members. But according to the investigation, they also found the old bustard associated with the murderer, a woman with a broken hand.
The murderer is a person on the fringes of society who picks up garbage, and the woman with a broken hand is saved by the murderer because of a poison injection. The two developed a feeling of "garbage" pity for each other, and the murderer cut off the left hand of the victims in order to please her.
Then the woman with the broken hand took them to find the murderer, Ren Kai let Wang Tao leave, Wang Tao followed and met the gang that came to cut her, and Brother Zhan went to chase the woman with the broken hand who took the opportunity to escape.
Ren Kai went to look for someone in the direction pointed by the woman with the broken hand, only to meet Wang Tao, who was slashed and killed by the gang, and went to save people, and was shot down in the confusion and wang Tao picked up the gun and escaped. Brother Zhan went to chase after the woman with the broken hand, and when he was about to find out, he heard the gunshot and left, causing the woman with the broken hand to be killed by the murderer.
The two finally caught up with Wang Tao, who lost his gun because he was afraid of falling.
The policeman lost his gun was a big deal, and Ren Kai and Zhan Ge went back to frantically looking for a gun. The road was slippery in the dark, and there was garbage all around, and the two of them certainly did not find the gun after a while of busy work. As a result, when he returned, he found that Wang Tao, who was handcuffed, was actually missing, but he was picked up by the murderer who passed by.
Ren Kai's loss of the gun is a serious dereliction of duty, and Zhan Ge pushes Wang Tao step by step to become the next victim.
Finally, the two found out according to the clues that the murderer was an abandoned Japanese wanderer (played by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), the girl Wang Tao had a very strong desire to survive, and still frantically resisted after being raped by the murderer, stabbed the murderer and fled to the roof to hide in the garbage room.
Zhan Ge and Ren Kai look around for the murderer in the rain according to the clues, and when they see the puppet that was washed away in the rain, they finally succeed in finding the murderer's lair.
In the end, a fight between the two sides in the rainy roof gave a "fatalistic" ending, and there are no spoilers here.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="61" > the plot of "Wisdom Teeth" is not complicated, but the style of images and tastes are very "Hong Kong films"</h1>
To be fair, "Wisdom Teeth" is very good but not particularly good, and I personally feel that the quality is very similar to "Tropical Past" that has not been constrained by censorship, and tells a story of stability in extreme image stylization, which is quite rare but not good enough to become a god.
The story and characters of this film are too flat and stable, and there are not many surprises in other aspects except for the style of the image.
However, the shortcomings of the film will not be analyzed here, because for this Hong Kong film. Its storyline and characters are well-groomed, and it does not affect his position in the hearts of fans.
Why has this "Wisdom Teeth" still attracted the pursuit of film fans, especially Hong Kong film fans?
The reason is that this movie rarely has the taste of "Hong Kong film", it is dark, it cu, its style is extreme, it suppresses madness and everyone is desperate. But the taste of "Hong Kong films" is a general statement, which has to talk about two things, which is also the reason why fans now pursue this kind of "Hong Kong films".
1, the theme of the peak era of Hong Kong films has declined, and now the mainstream Hong Kong police films in the market have become "emotional assembly lines", which is indeed not "tasteful" enough compared with previous Hong Kong films.
Hong Kong film peak era is good at a lot of themes, comedy, martial arts fantasy films, action kung fu films, police crime films, etc., the first three genres have declined, after 2010 the market also sold out costume magic blockbusters and police blockbusters, around 2017 only police blockbusters left.
Compared with the early "Hero's True Colors" jianghu spirit, "Infernal Affairs" police undercover love and killing each other's human nature sinks, these Hong Kong police blockbusters are too "assembly line".
Movies are starring the older generation of Hong Kong superstars, the story plot and background settings if they do not run to foreign countries to toss, basically can be summarized as: with the feelings of Hong Kong movies toss Hong Kong a city landmark, almost no place to explode -
The audience is faced with the same setting and plot, just as in the face of the fancy combination of Andy Lau, Leung Ka Fai, Aaron Kwok, Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Zhang Jiahui on the actors, there are no surprises and surprises.
Moreover, under the influence of the review that conforms to the "mainland market", the film must be filled with the expression of "good triumphs over evil".
The most important thing is that Hong Kong filmmakers do not understand the story of the mainland (there are not many good shots in the north), and they are not willing to let go of the arrogance of Hong Kong films, resulting in this film only leaving Hong Kong with the toss of "remembering the feelings of Hong Kong films".
Filming well is "Chasing the Dragon", "Peerless", "Bomb Disposal Expert 2", and if it is not filmed well, it is the same assembly line.
2. This kind of "Hong Kong film" flavor falls on the police crime films that stick to the locality, because it is rare and pure, so it is rare
The blockbusters of police films in the peak era of Hong Kong cinema are still "The True Colors of Heroes" and "Infernal Affairs". At the same time, "Hong Kong Strange Case", "Human Meat Char Siu Bun", "Coppola Virus" and so on belong to B-grade films and cut films.
Just as the director of this film, Zheng Baorui, became famous for making cut films, the early "Horror Hotline Of Big-Headed Monster Baby" had tried, and 2006's "Dog Bites Dog" was his masterpiece.
Later, Zheng Baorui's "Journey to the West" series, which went north to the mainland market, was no different from the magic films made by a large number of Hong Kong directors in the same era; they were all commercial blockbusters with high box office but very bad quality, and there was nothing left except the box office.
In the middle, Zheng Baorui returned to his own style of "Kill the Wolf 2", which was unanimously praised by the audience.
This "Wisdom Teeth" was well received by fans, it is another genre film with extreme style content when Hong Kong police blockbusters have become emotional assembly lines, and due to the current review, this dark, style-extreme film has no access to the mainland market, and has pushed a wave of word of mouth among fans.
The movie isn't that good, but it's really hard to come by in this big picture.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="99" > epilogue</h1>
Before 2010, when Du Qifeng and Galaxy Images were still highly prolific, the number of such Hong Kong films was still very large.
After 2010, with the reduction of Du Qifeng and Galaxy Image, the only similar movies in these years are 2015's "Blood and Plums", and 2016's "Tree Trick".
Of course, this is a well-filmed police crime film, and there are many general films such as "Stormtrooper" and "Hand Tired Smoke".
"Tree Trick" is a release of the feelings of Hong Kong films, but the theme is too taboo for the mainland market. On the contrary, "Blood in Search of Plums" and "Wisdom Teeth" are dark themes, extreme video styles, and crime films that express the human struggles of people on the fringes of society.
Two of the male protagonists of these three movies are Lin Jiadong, and Lin Jiadong's rising momentum is almost as good as Gu Tianle.
However, compared with the adaptation of "Blood and Plums" based on real events, the shortcomings of "Wisdom Teeth" are still quite obvious. It is indeed a Hong Kong genre film with a distinct style, but the film itself lacks certain surprises, and I think it is very similar to a Du QiFeng film made by Zheng Baorui.
However, in the current environment of Chinese films (the production of Hong Kong films is getting smaller and smaller), and because it is difficult to enter the mainland market (mainland crime films are also on the rise), this "Wisdom Teeth" may be very similar to "Blood and Plums".
It may take years to make another one, although it is not so classic, but it is one less to watch.
It's rare and pure, so it's very rare.