The American author Svetlana Boym said in the book "The Future of Nostalgia": "Nostalgia is not only the remembrance of a time that has passed and a home that has disappeared, but also the remembrance of a time that once lived there, but is now scattered around the world. The nostalgia of my friends." Living in a modern society, "nostalgia" has shifted from the long-lasting thoughts of the homeland in the geographical space to a kind of nostalgia and aftertaste of the past time in the modern context . As the art of time and space, movies are like a mirror reflecting our collective memories and personal feelings scattered in the river of time, reflecting our endless cultural imagination. Therefore, going to the cinema to revisit a classic old film not only satisfies the sense of ritual in our life, but also a reflection of ourselves and the past, and a reunion with a long absence from the past.
Last year was a big year for Hong Kong films to be re-released. From April's "Westward Journey: The Great Sage's Marriage" to September's "Unemployed", and then to November's "The True Color of Heroes", it was like a barrage of cannons for movie fans. The surprises, of course, are also unmissable profit opportunities for publishers. Even though the rumors of selling feelings are rising again, a faint worry has never been able to match the enthusiasm for watching the movie. With the news of the re-screening of "A Feifei" by the Art Alliance in May this year, it can be seen that the wave of re-screening of Hong Kong films is not going away, and classic Hong Kong films may meet us on the big screen in a more diversified way such as split-line screening. Whether it's Fairy Zixia in the gorgeous coat of Journey to the West, the "Three Musketeers in Central" who returned from the light and shadow, Little Ma with a matchstick in his mouth, or Ah Fei who is about to appear dancing in the mirror, all of them have faded away from the dust of time and reappeared. The brilliance of that era. Back then, the love was fresh again, so let's start with "The True Color of Heroes"...
A return to the golden age
Looking back at Hong Kong in the 20th century, the 1980s and early 1990s were nothing less than the golden age of the film industry. As the former studio giants are gradually being forgotten by the market, the "New Wave" has injected fresh blood and aesthetic impetus into Hong Kong films, while "Golden Harvest" and "Art City" have consciously improved the decoration of the films. At that time, Hong Kong’s economy was developing rapidly, the creative activities were extremely vigorous, the local audience was enthusiastic, and the critics’ ideological trend was agitated; the overseas market was even more beautiful, and Hong Kong films became the second largest film exporting area in the world after Hollywood, shaping a brand for a while. From the American film scholar Bordwell's "Secrets of Hong Kong Films", we can also get a glimpse:
"Just as Margaret Thatcher was about to hand over the colonies to China, the Hong Kong film industry was entering the so-called golden decade, and a large number of vigorous films emerged, which not only improved the production level, but also opened up other possibilities beyond the inherent film genre. Sex. The "Best Partner" series, which was launched in 1982 and has become a hit, is a Cantonese comedy variant made by imitating the "Bond movie" plot. Jackie Chan also rewrote kung fu films, and changed to adventure stories and urban police and bandit films. Xu In films such as Shanghai Nights (1984), Kerr updated older formulas with daring style and sarcastic humor; his national epic film Once Upon a Time (1991), also made historical kung fu films Resurrection. Gangster films have also made a comeback with exaggerated and romantic methods, including John Woo's "hero films" ("The True Color of Heroes", 1986; "Blood", 1989), Huang Zhiqiang ("Heaven and Earth", 1988) and Lin Ling Dong ("Rogue Goofy," 1992) works, etc."
It can be seen that this mountain climbing road also has its own unique historical background. It dates back to the early 1980s, when China and the United Kingdom started negotiations on the return of Hong Kong to China. The return of Hong Kong entered the countdown period. At the same time, the Hong Kong film industry has taken advantage of the vitality brought by the post-war baby boom, and various new changes have emerged.
2. Heroes from the Wind and Clouds
Everyone yearns for the era of gold everywhere, but the hurricane of the era has not favored everyone. In 1986, when the Hong Kong film industry was booming, John Woo encountered a creative bottleneck at this time and was frustrated with Taiwan. In the love of the comedy giants of the silent film era such as Chaplin, the traditional creative form did not bring him any turning point. Unhappy Wu Yusen quietly returned to Hong Kong, and he had the same interests as Tsui Hark, who had made great achievements in the "Art City". It happens that "box office poison" Chow Yun-fat has been in the film industry for many years, looking for a breakthrough. In the 1970s, Di Lung, who was in Chang Che's films, has become old and has faded with the decline of Shaw Brothers. Perhaps only Leslie Cheung, who is young and childish and ready to go, is a bright and different color in the shadow cast by the heat wave of this era.
Several people hit it off and worked together to rewrite Long Gang's old work "The True Color of Heroes" (1967) in the 1960s. It was directed by John Woo and supervised by Tsui Hark. Brother Hao (Dillon) sticks to the unswerving friendship, the relationship between Brother Hao and his brother Ajie, as well as the contradiction with the gangster, has created a tragic situation of a gangster killer who wants to go the right way, and tries his best to exaggerate the brotherhood of life and death.
Tsui Hark recalled that he proposed to John Woo to make "The True Color of Heroes": "We talked about the concept of 'hero' for a long time. Comedy films are in vogue, and it is not easy to invest in a romantic and violent film." Who knew that this adventurous creation Not only did it not get overwhelmed by the torrent of the times because of its "romantic violence" elements that did not match the popular style, but instead hit the key point of the development of the Hong Kong film genre with the extreme stylized repackaging of action films. Hong Kong-style gangster films have opened up new territories, and even triggered a series of gangster films known as "hero films". Of course, it also opened the curtain for the last golden years of Hong Kong films from 1986 to 1993, and drew attention and splendor in the 1980s and even the entire history of Hong Kong films.
3. Oriental spirit under Western packaging
The way to win in Hong Kong films is actually to put old wine in a new bottle. Hong Kong filmmakers' close attention to stylistic experimentation and their skillful use of genre laws are particularly evident in the "new wave" core group that returned from overseas in the late 1970s. They reshaped the existing conventions and forms in the "imported" genre films in a stylized manner to meet the different needs of the audience.
The success of "The True Color of Heroes" is difficult to separate from John Woo's extreme stylized reshaping of gangster films. The film reflects "a collection of Italian westerns, martial arts films, film noirs and popular romantic dramas. Dacheng", whether in Hong Kong or the West, is unprecedented. On the basis of drawing on the aesthetic resources of overseas gangster films such as the United States, Italy, and Japan, on the one hand, it interacts with Hong Kong's local cultural construction and genre aesthetics, so as to obtain unique local cognitive value and aesthetic personality; on the other hand, it integrates John Woo Personal unique style of "violence aesthetics" - inheriting the "tomato juice Dafa" of his teacher Zhang Che, while reducing the bloody scene rendering and masculine boldness, deliberately with dance-like elegant gunfights and MTV-like music sequences. Emphasizes expressing the beauty in it, making the action highly romantic and lyrical. For example, at the end of the film, when Chow Yun-fat's Pony Ma was shot by random guns, the blood slowly flowing in the upgraded shot, and the shocked and trembling face of Ajie played by Leslie Cheung in the close-up shot, the whole world seems to be red, that is The meticulously crafted moment of death; and when the music of "Freedom of Commitment" sounded, the smoke-filled Fenglin Pavilion promenade, the soothing music and the shooting scene of bullets formed a combination of dynamic and static, relaxed rhythm.
If John Woo's extremely stylized packaging of the film is grafted from the West, then the writing of "love and righteousness" has won the essence of traditional Eastern values, which is also the biggest feature that differentiates it from Hollywood. Since the late 1960s, the most important aesthetic presentation in Hong Kong films has been the depiction of "male affection". As a pioneer in the new century of martial arts, Zhang Che has contributed greatly.
Wu Yusen was Zhang Che's assistant when he was employed by "Shaw Brothers" in the early days, and was deeply influenced by Zhang Che. (In 1989, John Woo filmed a film to pay tribute to Zhang Che - "The Heroes of Righteousness")
"I was fascinated by Zhang Che's films, and I began to worship the spirit of chivalry in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, and admired revolutionaries, those who made contributions to the country, and those with a spirit of sacrifice. The spirit I admire is all found in Zhang Che's films. Although there are some technical imperfections in his films, the kind of benevolent and heroic film spirit is very attractive to me. With this kind of feeling, I asked someone to find director Zhang Che, hoping to get to know him, Collaboration. To a large extent, his film spirit influenced me a lot." - John Woo
After years of artistic practice, Zhang Che and others have made masculinity a localized symbol in Hong Kong movies. With their depiction of loyalty and deep friendship between men, in the process of inheriting Confucian culture, Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts , Kung Fu movies are pushed to a more personalized and charming narrative level. And John Woo fully integrates this feature in "The True Color of Heroes". For example, in the battle of Fenglin Pavilion in the film, Brother Pony slaughtered the traitors, and he was shot in the leg and left disabled. Three years later, Brother Pony and Brother Hao reunited. Embracing each other vividly depicts the persistence of brotherhood here, which is a retrospective and sublimation of male friendship in Hong Kong film history.
4. Recovering the lost artistic heart
"The True Color of Heroes" was born in the golden age of Hong Kong films in the 1980s, and the trend of the times rolled it up, but as mentioned in the paragraph "Heroes from the Wind and Clouds" above, it did not deliberately cater to the situation and the market. Made by necessity, on the contrary, it is not easy to invest in a romantic and violent film in an environment where comedy is in vogue. Then we have to examine the important reasons for its fame in film history from the creators themselves and social psychology.
In 1984, the Sino-British negotiations on the "Hong Kong 1997" issue ended with the signing of the "Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Hong Kong Question". Subsequent Hong Kong films were full of references to the "1997 Syndrome", and the lifestyle of Hong Kong people seemed to be increasingly different to show that they had the cultural freedom to get rid of the influence of the mainland. In such a social situation, the audience also needed to Seeking new adjustment and catharsis spiritually, to borrow the words of Hong Kong film critic Roca:
"The True Color of Heroes uses sensationalism to exaggerate 'people are in the rivers and lakes, and they cannot help themselves', exaggerating the climate, the situation forcing people, the injustice of society and interpersonal relationships, and trying to make an irrational 'big solution' in an illusion. There is a certain empathy/sympathy effect for the unsettled audience of unpredictable prospects. Therefore, to set off a boom, the social hearts of the pre-transition period provide it with the appropriate objective conditions."
Wu Yusen had an unhappy encounter before, and it was not until "The True Color of Heroes" that he had the opportunity to give full play to his personal anger, depression, loneliness, sadness, and the pursuit of "love", "dignity" and "confidence". It can be seen that the film is not the turbulent situation of the gangsters in the rivers and lakes, nor the reproduction of realism, but the reconstruction of emotional utopia. , it's all madness" can just let the audience's emotions vent, soothe the hearts that don't know where the future is going, just as the movie sings, "Let our smiles be full of youthful pride, let We look forward to a better tomorrow."
Perhaps it is the unprecedented fit between the emotions of the film, the director's mood, and the audience's emotions that make "The True Color of a Hero" a special masterpiece in film history. On the contrary, in John Woo's later works, as Rocca said, "start to calculate and pile up like "The True Color of Heroes II", or too much incitement to vent anger and passion like "Blood on the Street", "The Hot Hands Detective", or turn to focus Feelings are also highly compressed and simplified due to the creation of style.”
Different from the personal nature of novels, poems, and prose, film is an art of collective creation, but it also requires the sincere feelings of the creator. The authenticity of the characters' emotions in the movie is inextricably linked with the authenticity of the creator's own emotions. John Woo used his life experience to combine the actor's own ups and downs to film "The True Color of Heroes", which wrote human nature and emotion, and today's The cinema is full of sensational atmosphere and false fragments floating. The creators often use "to create feelings for the text" instead of "express one's mind directly". In terms of emotional writing, it is far less abundant and balanced than "The True Color of Heroes". . Hong Kong film critic Shi Qi's evaluation is very good in my opinion:
"The True Color of Heroes touches on a man's father-son relationship, brotherhood, friendship, man-woman relationship, injustice and victimization, and revenge.
Although good works of art cannot be measured by criteria, if there is, I think it will be the "heart" of the work - the sincere emotion of the creator. The lost artistic heart needs to be recalled, which is also the value of "The True Color of Heroes" in today's era, and the original intention of my writing this article.
View more about A Better Tomorrow reviews
