Speaking of this film, there will be a lot of films out there. Take your time and say that Hong Kong films are never boring.
First of all, let's talk about Wang Jing, this is a fat and fat man with his own hype.
Compared with his father Wang Tianlin, everyone knew who he was by looking at his face. I remember that Wang Tianlin came from the works of the Galaxy Image Department, and only later did I know that the "uncles" who spoke loudly in "Uncle" are truly the "uncles" of Hong Kong movies.
And director To Qifeng was cultivated by him, and this alone is not a small achievement. The two have worked together 14 times in their lives. This is only on the premise that their uncles no longer direct and concentrate on being an actor. If Du Qifeng was an assistant director for Wang Tianlin before, it is almost impossible to tell how many times the two have cooperated.
Similarly, the old man and his son Wang Jing also cooperated 14 times, but this included the early use of his position to arrange a few face-to-face roles for Wang Jing, so it can be seen that Wang Tianlin prefers Du Qifeng from his heart.
Speaking of Du Qifeng and Wang Jing, there is another person who has to be mentioned is Zhou Xingchi. As one of the top directors and all-powerful stars in Hong Kong at that time, it is not just a story, but a grudge.
Wang Jing and Zhou Xingchi are hard to say who accomplished who. Now looking back at Xingye's film, Wang Jing's film is definitely not the best, but it must be Wang Jing's film that has brought Xingye to the top of the box office.
For a long time, the Hong Kong entertainment circle surrounded and suppressed Zhou Xingchi, among which Wang Jing was the main force. I never thought Zhou Xingchi was such a good person. Obviously, he himself is far from the image he created, but I also hate unilateral personal attacks, which is why I don't like to scold people who have personal problems directly.
In contrast, Du Qifeng and Zhou Xingchi turned their faces very early. Du sir's domineering is that in the early 1990s, all Hong Kong was held in the palm of his hand. He didn't care at all. At that time, he was the only one who dared to stand up and say that I don't like you, Stephen Chow, and said it very objectively. A man should be magnanimous. I believe Zhou Xingchi is such a person, and Du Qifeng is also such a person, but Wang Jing is not.
Du Qifeng and Zhou Xingchi have worked together on two films, "The Trial of the Dead" and "Ji Gong".
After "Jigong", Du Qifeng was silent for a year, thinking about a question, what kind of director he needs to be, this is not my obscenity, this is what he said himself in an interview.
Afterwards, Sir Du founded the well-known Galaxy Image. Now you ask me who else has made a film that is considered a Hong Kong film. I think there is a part of the Galaxy Image and a little bit of Wong Kar-wai, that's all.
In the second year of Galaxy Mapping, "The Birth of a Prefix", which can be written into the history of film, was born. To Qifeng has always insisted on walking on two legs, and "Preface" is the first step of his personal style thigh. I don't want to talk about this movie, but I want to talk about the two leading actors of this movie, Wu Zhenyu and Liu Qingyun.
The same two people, two years after "Preface", filmed a film directed by Huo Yaoliang called "O's Triad Archives". The screenwriter of this film happened to be director Wang Jing.
It can be seen that in addition to shooting some popcorn movies, Wang Jing still has his own film ideals and ambitions. He has tried many maverick styles, and most of them were screenwriters at that time, such as the decadent and romantic "A Bad Boy". The Legend of Gambling", I highly recommend this film, because it is really hard to imagine that this is a script written by Wang Jing.
Another example is "O". Why do I say this "O Story", because in my opinion, today's "Chasing the Dragon" is just a change from the script of the year based on the play of Andy Lau and Donnie Yen.
In "The Story of O", Liu Qingyun plays Ah Hao, who covers the sky with only one hand in the Kowloon Walled City. In the film, his leg is also broken, alluding to lame Hao; Wu Zhenyu plays Ah Lo, the Cantonese pronunciation is the same as Lai Luo's Luo, in fact, Lai Luo is in The real character prototype in history is called Lu Le, which is this music. In the film, a loyal and honest little police officer became the chief detective of the Chinese, alluding to Lai Luo.
I once wrote an article for this film and the link is as follows: "The Triad Archives" From Chen Jinnan to Sun Yat-sen, the gang is a magical circle
There is so much overlap, even the "Royal Milk Tea" (broken hair mixed with milk tea) used by the police for private torture is exactly the same.
After going around in a big circle, I came to today's focus "Chasing the Dragon".
Chasing the dragon itself is a slang term in Cantonese to describe an action when taking drugs. I still remember an interesting story a friend told me about this move.
He has a friend who is called "skating" in our northeast, which is similar to "chasing the dragon". How big is his addiction? Once they went to this "skating" home to find him, and he happened to catch a cold and was looking for paracetamol to eat. , the small white particles were smashed into powder with a beer bottle, the tin foil of the cigarette case was gathered into a strip, and then the whole head was close to the table, one nostril was blocked with a thumb, and the paracetamol was sucked out in one breath with all the strength in the nasal cavity. Then he shook his head and said, the medicine is ready, let's go.
But I personally don't think it's particularly appropriate to put it in this film, because neither Lai Luo nor the ruffian is mainly in the drug business, it can only be said that it is part of their business.
Lv Le, the prototype character of Lai Luo, is said to have died in Canada. In his popular era, he ranked first among the four chief detectives and created a complete and efficient police-underworld corruption system. He is an unavoidable figure in Hong Kong history.
It is said that when Lu Le absconded, he was worth 500 million. It seems that it is the same now. There are hundreds of millions of corrupt officials, but considering the prices at the time, in Hong Kong at that time, when wanton noodles could not be bought for one yuan, 500 million Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to about 20 billion today.
So can you imagine how terrible it is that the current Hong Kong Criminal Investigation Chief Inspector is worth 20 billion Hong Kong dollars?
When Andy Lau filmed "The Biography of 500 Million Inspector Lei Luo", there were actually only two parts, not a trilogy. The third part was just a DVD company re-editing the first two scenes in order to sell the money, making a gimmick and cheating It's just a lie.
One of the things that I don't like about the two parts is that Aaron Kwok plays Andy Lau's son. It's a bit unreasonable. Dancing is a big taboo in watching movies, so what should I say, the upper part is ok, but the lower part I don't like.
Lu Le himself also has many opinions on this play, and one of the most important points is that Yan Tong, named Yan Ye in the film, is also the four chief detectives, but his status is far lower than that of Lu Le. In "Lei Luo Biography" and "O Story", the story of Lei Luo's low-pitched humiliation and humiliation towards Yan Tong before he developed is completely fictional, and Lu Le was so angry that he directly cursed his mother.
It is estimated that it is precisely for this reason that this "Chasing the Dragon" avoids a lot of this problem. Even if Lai Luo has not yet achieved fame and his status is far lower than that of Yan Ye, he will not be obedient but brave.
When it comes to Lu Le's dissatisfaction with "Lei Luo Biography", "The Lame Man" has done a lot better. In order to avoid angering the prototype characters, a description has been added to the title, without my consent, please forgive me
Lai Hao is the most veritable Chinese hero film, directed by Pan Wenjie, in addition to filming many TV series with special names (such as "Dragon Gate Station", "Rolling Red Dust", "Xiaobao and Kangxi",), this person probably only shoots in this life. This kind of film, but this kind of film was taken to the extreme.
In addition to "The Lame Man", there are two better works "The Emperor of Shanghai" and "The New Shanghai Beach" starring Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau. "The Lame Man" is undoubtedly one of the best.
It is worth mentioning that the screenwriter of the film is MacDonald. This person has a very sharp style, and "Provincial and Hong Kong Flag Soldiers" became an instant hit. So far, apart from Lin Lingdong, I have never seen any director who made Hong Kong films so tough.
After talking about Lai Luo and Lai Hao, come back and watch "Chasing the Dragon". Andy Lau's Lai Luo is better than his original version, Donnie Yen's Lame Hao is not as good as Lu Liangwei.
If you say that you are a hero, then don’t do anything about the vicissitudes of the world. My teacher once said that a real villain is better than a hypocrite. The underworld is the underworld, why should you find motives for your own behavior?
So if you look at Lu Liangwei in "The Lame Man", I'll show you how bad it is. I'm still very charming and charming. This is the essence of the film. Donnie Yen's lame man, bad on the surface, full of motherfuckers and forced to close the door and have Hallelujah.
On the contrary, Andy Lau's Lai Luo, Feng Qingyundan, described the criminal network as a business empire, more like the vision and pattern of a hero in troubled times.
The whole film can't be said to be very good, there are many stinky problems that can't be on the table. For example, many plots are blunt and emotional. For example, the logic of the plot is still very worthy of scrutiny, but I think this is the upper limit of Wang Jing, so why bother.
But when it comes to reviving Hong Kong films, recalling that era is a bit exaggerated.
What does the golden age of Hong Kong films feel to me? It probably doesn't hide the overflowing hormones, and the wild ambitions don't need a finely crafted atmosphere. Bordwell said, "It's all over the top, it's all madness," and the more time passes, the more precise and vivid it feels.
So you say there are still Hong Kong movies? I think it's long gone. I don't know when it started, but I know that the era of Hong Kong films we love will definitely not come back, but why bother? There are good times and bad times, people always like to miss the past and look down on the future but not the present.
So "Chasing the Dragon" is pretty good, but in fact, most of what I saw were good memories. Thinking about it, it's not bad.
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