Exceeding expectations, unimaginable failure

Marvin 2022-03-09 08:02:19

Many fans said that this is Wang Jing's best work in the past ten years. After watching it two days ago, the Taoist priest felt that there was nothing wrong with what he said, and the movie exceeded expectations.

The story of the movie is not complicated, but the two directors Wang Jing and Guan Zhiyao did a good job. The plot is smooth and flowing, the pictures are gorgeous, the Hong Kong flavor is strong, and the occasional interjection makes people laugh.

As a gangster feature film, "Chasing the Dragon" is indeed worth watching. If nothing else, just a group of Hong Kong veteran stars can be worth the ticket price. In addition to starring Donnie Yen and Andy Lau, there are also Zheng Zeshi, Wu Yijiang, Huang Rihua, Tang Zhenye , Chen Huimin and other old actors, of which three of the TVB Five Tigers will come.

However, please remember that Wang Jing himself said that "Chasing the Dragon" is a combination of "The Lame Man" and "The Legend of 500 Million Inspector Lei Luo", that is to say, "Chasing the Dragon" should be a biopic, not a A feature film, from this point of view, "Chasing the Dragon" is quite a failure.


In 1991, "The Lame Man" produced by McDonald's was born. While collecting 38 million at the box office, it won the best film at the Hong Kong Film Awards. After half a year, Xiang Huaqiang asked Wang Jing to make him. The movie "The Biography of 500 Million Inspector Lai Luo".

"The Lame Man" tells the story of how a smuggler turned into a big drug lord, and "The Biography of 500 Million Inspector Lei Luo" tells the process of how an ordinary policeman climbed up to the Inspector General of China. No matter which one, the key point is in the process of change.


And "Chasing the Dragon" focuses on the brotherhood of Lai Hao and Lai Luo. As for how they reached the pinnacle of life, the film has briefly touched on it. It may be more lively paced, but it has lost its sense of depth.

Although Donnie Yen and Andy Lau in "Chasing the Dragon" performed well, I personally think Donnie Yen is not as good as Lv Liangwei compared with the two old movies, and Andy Lau is still Andy Lau.

The lame man played by Lv Liangwei is full of domineering and arrogant, but at the same time he is scheming and has a lot of means. Lv Liangwei plays a gangster with both form and spirit.


The lame man played by Donnie Yen, in addition to being ruthless and brave, has the courage to repay his kindness, loyalty is loyalty, but he can't see any heroic qualities, at best he can only be regarded as a gang leader who talks about loyalty.

And Andy Lau's acting skills have always been like that. It's not particularly good, nor is it particularly bad. More than 20 years ago, Lei Luo in "The Biography of 500 Million Inspector Lei Luo" was him. Lai Luo in "Dragon" is still him, except for the difference in the script, there is really nothing to say.

When it comes to the script, "Chasing the Dragon" has too many places to complain about. First of all, are Lai Hao and Lai Luo really a life-and-death relationship like in the film? This is obviously unlikely. One soldier and one bandit may only have an interest relationship between them.

The reason why "Chasing the Dragon" is so edited, and the plot of the Kowloon Walled City in the film, it is obvious that Wang Jing is cooking cold rice. These ideas all come from a movie he wrote in his early years: "The Archives of the Triad of O". This film tells the story of a pair of good buddies in Kowloon Walled City, one is a policeman and the other is a gangster.


At the same time, Wang Jing also conveniently set the British as the villain in "Chasing the Dragon", and successfully opened up a new type of film, the nationalist gangster film. This adaptation is admirable, but also lacks a certain degree of convincing.

At that time, the British government ruled Hong Kong, and the British in the police department were generally in management positions. If the Chinese police wanted to be promoted, they had to obtain their consent.

And since ancient times, the people have not fought against the officials. Therefore, Donnie Yen beat the British police in "Chasing the Dragon", and Andy Lau rescued him from the British police. of.


In "The Lame Man" and "The Biography of 500 Million Inspector Lai Luo", no matter how arrogant Lai Hao is, he is respectful in front of Lai Luo. Even if he is not convinced, his face will never show it. Similarly, even if Lai Luo is powerful , facing the British police, but also had to flatter.

After talking about the script, let's talk about the supporting roles. In "The Lame Man", there are the lascivious Wu Qihua and the cunning Zheng Zeshi, the loyal Xu Jinjiang and the wise Li Zixiong, the virtuous Ye Tong and the dissolute Ye Mei.

In "The Legend of 500 Million Inspector Lei Luo", there are Qiu Shuzhen, the childhood sweetheart, the beautiful and pungent Bai Yue'e, Guan Haishan, who cares about his younger generation, Qin Pei, the old traitor, and the loyal Wu Mengda.

These characters are male and female, each character is flesh and blood, and each character is lifelike. In "Chasing the Dragon", the female characters are all reduced to soy sauce, and the male characters are basically not very good, only Wu Yi will be impressive.


Therefore, although "Chasing the Dragon" looks very cool, it cannot withstand careful consideration. In terms of character creation, it has something to be praised, but compared with the previous work, it pales a lot.

I'm not trying to fault it, I just think it's great as a gangster feature film, but it's a real failure as a gangster biopic.

I don't deny what some people have said, it's scary for Wang Jing to get serious. Compared with his other works in recent years, "Chasing the Dragon" has made great progress and deserves praise, but praise is praise, and there is no need to bring it to the altar.


Personally, I think "Chasing the Dragon" is good-looking, but it is still far from a classic, let alone an epic biographical film.

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