Hong Kong director Zheng Baorui is also an odd person.
Most of the impressions of young audiences on him come from those bad films.
For example, the "Journey to the West Trilogy" with a Douban score of about 5 points: "Journey to the West's Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", "Journey to the West's Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essences", and "Journey to the West Daughter Country".
In addition, he also has some "Journey to the West" related theme works "Journey to the West: The True and False Monkey King", "Journey to the West No. 3 Borrowed Banana Fan", "Sun Wukong: The Beginning of the Legend" waiting to be released.
Seriously, either Zheng Baorui is addicted to shooting journeys to the west, or he owes money and is coerced, otherwise I really can't figure out why he is still obsessed with shooting the Journey to the West series after the trilogy has hit the street.
However, you know, before taking over the "Journey to the West" series, Zheng Dao was a representative of niche Hong Kong film directors.
He is a treasure in the palm of the "Galactic Impression", full of labels such as "dark", "paranoid", "edge", etc., which is both cool and compelling.
For example, his famous work "Dog Bites Dog", the image is extremely fierce and bloody and dark, full of power and characteristics.
After fifteen years, Zheng Baorui brought a new film "kill" into people's vision, and also successfully entered the 71st Berlin Film Festival, which is regarded as a return of Zheng Director after "Dog Bites Dog".
Wisdom Teeth
In this film, Zheng Baorui has worked hard to build Hong Kong into a "sin city", allowing us to once again see the genre film technology of Hong Kong film directors.
Since the film was launched in 2017, it has attracted the attention of fans, after all, this is a crime action film created by Zheng Baorui after the "Journey to the West" trilogy, returning to Hong Kong, China.
"The story of Wisdom Teeth is set very much like Hong Kong, and next to the city, there are always forgotten and soon-to-be-replaced old neighborhoods, which I already feel very much at first glance."
This film is adapted from the novel of the same name by mainland writer Remy, coupled with the gold medal screenwriters Ou Jian'er and Cen Junxi of Galaxy Image, the whole movie is full of "Galactic flavor".
The film's two male protagonists follow the common combination of young and old partners:
Veteran police officer Zhan Ge (played by Lin Jiadong) and ren Kai (played by Li Chun), a high-caliber student who has just graduated from the police academy, work together to investigate a serial case of splitting and throwing corpses.
Recently, the Hong Kong police received a report that citizens had found a woman's left hand cut off by a blunt object from garbage heaps across the city.
Even, twice, women whose left hand was cut off were found.
These women are either prostitutes or drug addicts, often both.
At the same time, in the process of investigating the case, Ren Kai found that as soon as Brother Zhan saw a young girl Who had just been released from prison, Wang Tao (Liu Yaser), he began to lose control of his emotions, punching and kicking Wang Tao, hating that he could not cause the rest of the place to die.
As the story unfolds, we can learn that Wang Tao, who originally came from the mainland, was addicted to drugs in Hong Kong.
Once, she had a drug addiction and was taking drugs while driving, and she ended up hitting a pregnant woman.
And this pregnant woman is Brother Zhan's wife. After being hit, she miscarried, the child was gone, and she became a vegetative person.
Therefore, Brother Zhan's hatred for Wang Tao was also deserved.
When I first saw this setting, to be honest, my first reaction was Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Killing".
First of all, the two people of Zhan Ge and Ren Kai are simply out of reach.
A person does not talk much harshly, dressed in rags all day, as long as he can complete the case, any means can be used.
The other wore a three-piece suit with a delicate fit all day, his hair was smooth and shiny, and he wanted to complete a case, but also wanted the process to conform to the regulations, and from time to time fluent English blurted out. In the process of chasing the criminal, he did not pay attention to losing the gun.
In short, it's an old fritter, a little fresh meat.
Second, both films are about a series of cases in which have been killed and thrown away.
But looking at it, I think it's not so much "Wisdom Teeth" like "Memories of Killing" as it is a "Galactic Impressions Collection" movie.
The old fritters and the newly graduated rookie partner, the setting of the double male protagonist is very similar to "Detective".
The little rookie carelessly lost his gun in the process of handling the case, similar to the plot of "Detective" and "PTU".
In the process of handling the case, the old policeman was disturbed by his wife and enemy, which is like a mixture of the black police in "Dark Flower" and the vengeful father in "Revenge".
Whether it is "Memories of Killing" or these works produced by "Galaxy Image", it is clear that "Wisdom Teeth" is undoubtedly a real-world, integrated genre film.
For example, after Wang Tao appeared, Zheng Baorui opened the crazy rhythm of the "Golden 30 Minutes", which marked the official beginning of the film's action scenes.
The chase of these two people undoubtedly foreshadows the direction of cruelty and violence in the film. This fist-to-flesh long chase scene has Du Qifeng's style.
Zheng Zhaoqiang's excellent monochrome photography style, coupled with David Richardson's unique editing skills, the magnificent music composed by Kenji Kawai, and the art design effect of Mak Guoqiang, have undoubtedly sent "Wisdom Teeth" to an excellent height.
Mature audio-visual and scene scheduling undoubtedly quickly and firmly grasp the audience's attention, and the physiological pain is wrapped in the vortex of the text, as if the film is the audience's inflamed and painful wisdom teeth.
After the chase scene, Wang Tao was taken by Brother Zhan to see his wife lying on a hospital bed.
It was also from this moment that Wang Tao was determined to ask for Brother Zhan's forgiveness and then be a good person.
As a result, as an old drug addict, she began to assist the police in handling the case, and gave all the information she knew to Brother Zhan. Brother Zhan accepted Wang Tao's intelligence and arrested a large number of leaders of underground forces, but he also deliberately exposed the identity of Wang Tao's informants, leaving Wang Tao homeless and everyone shouting and beating.
Following in the footsteps of Wang Tao, Hong Kong under Zheng Baorui's lens slowly unfolded.
It is no longer just the glittering Victoria Harbour, but a terrible purgatory on earth. Hong Kong is like a huge garbage dump, and people chase after it like flies.
Sometimes, the swinging arm will hold up the camera to look down on the city, and the flashing subway will pass in the distance, which is like a sharp axe cut in from another civilized world, making "Wisdom Teeth" more like the garbage in the glamorous city on weekdays, quite David Lynch's feeling.
Male prostitutes and female thieves, poor streets and alleys.
At the same time, this genre and technique is also reminiscent of Frank Miller's Sin City.
However, "Sin City", which was born out of the comics, is more like an exaggeration. And "Wisdom Teeth" grows and spreads from the streets and alleys of the real Hong Kong, it is not only a masterpiece of "Galaxy Impression", but also a Hong Kong film and the terroir of the city of Hong Kong.
It doesn't exist in our imagination, it's reality, the English name of Wisdom Teeth, Limbo, Prison.
In the fights in the film, most of them are directed at Wang Tao.
In order to atone for her sins, she was exposed to the drug dealers and gamblers by Zhan Ge and was hunted down and killed. Skinny and small, almost every inch of her skin was full of scars, and every bone was broken and healed. In the midst of garbage and sewage, all she wants is to live, and she doesn't owe anyone to live.
On the street, she was chased by Brother Zhan in a car; apologized to Brother Zhan but was beaten to stand up; chased by the underworld and jumped straight down from the upper floor; splashed with swill by drug dealers; chased and beaten by a group of hooligans with knives; controlled and raped by murderers...
Wang Tao's body is like sadd's container of suffering, suffering all the pain, but still alive.
In the world of "Wisdom Teeth", no one pitied Wang Tao because she was a thin and beautiful woman, she became the ultimate victim of the bottom, and she had a tenacious and despicable life like Xiao Qiang.
Liu Yaser miraculously completed the role of Wang Tao. As a pure image of a mainland actress, I was really surprised that she could star in such a vigorous Hong Kong film and complete it so well.
She hollowed herself out layer by layer in the extreme helplessness and darkness, and it is no wonder that the berlin reporters were eager to give her the trophy directly after next year's Academy Awards.
And the murderer played by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi is simply perverted to the point of trembling.
He is a crippled, oedipal, and in a lair made of huge garbage, he treasures countless models of hands, human limbs, and several naked bodies of women who have been raped and killed...
Interestingly, there are some Buddha statues and Guanyin in it, but there is no compassion or mercy.
"Wisdom Teeth" uses black and white images to lure out the charms in people's hearts, there is no victory and success, and the exit of light has long been sealed.
Soundness is no different from mutilation, and the wisdom teeth in the heart are always faintly painful.
Brother Zhan's wisdom teeth are the car accident, the lost daughter and the wife who has become a vegetative person; Wang Tao's wisdom teeth are the sins and dark past that were inadvertently committed; and Ren Kai's wisdom teeth are the most obvious, and the pain is unbearable...
When the criminal was finally shot and killed by Ren Kai, and Brother Zhan was accidentally killed by Wang Tao, what we got were two young people with scales all over their bodies.
Ren Kai's painful wisdom teeth were finally knocked out during the fight, and he finally became the same person as Brother Zhan.
And Wang Tao fulfilled his wish, alive, but also covered with scars.
The city has removed its wisdom teeth, but it seems that everything is not going to the light.
After all, the Buddha, who is known for his compassion, turned a blind eye to the blood and ruins of the broken wall, leaving behind a shell of compassion and good intentions, which seems to be a metaphor and indictment of Zheng Baorui's fate of Hong Kong.
But isn't it after throwing yourself into the arms of the Virgin Mary that the promise of light will come as promised?
We don't know.
"Wisdom Teeth" is quite well done in terms of story rhythm and audiovisual language. Several actors also gave a wonderful performance almost by exploiting their own bodies.
But the film is not without its flaws.
For example, there are still certain problems in the character setting, the film uses the "misogyny complex" to achieve the effect of "new bottles of old wine" through racist packaging, and sets the murderer as a perverted Japanese immigrant.
This setting significantly reduces the depth of the film, making sin appear to be just an extreme sporadic event.
At the same time, Ren Kai lost the gun - Wang Tao picked it up in despair - because of nervousness and mistakenly shot to kill Brother Zhan, this plot setting is big,The theme is first,Very deliberate, and it is really unnecessary.
Objectively speaking, praising "Wisdom Teeth" is Zheng Baorui's return to courage after "Dog Bites Dog", or it is too prestigious.
But this film allows us to see the vigor and courage of a niche director, and it does contribute an audiovisual spectacle to the Chinese screen, which is still commendable.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Tong Yunxi
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