1. The confidant culture of "Blood Two Heroes"
In 1989, John Woo consecutively filmed "Blood Two Heroes" and "Fighting Heroes", both of which are gunmen films paying tribute to his teacher Zhang Che. The so-called gunman films are martial arts films that use guns instead of knives, and show the good and evil and affection of the martial arts world under the values of modern society. The Gunslinger movie is not a literal gunfight or martial arts. What he wants to highlight is not the 100 million bullets of the royal salute in the Western knight culture, nor the air ballet in the fireworks show, but the dying, If you want to sing, because there is a song, you will naturally be happy. Sad people have smiles on their faces, turn guns into knives, and connect short blades. This romance is not the death of peony flowers, but the inner spiritual world of Chinese philosophy. The so-called martial arts is not the surface of tearing devils in the octagonal cage and playing tricks and tricks to play the West invincible. On a deeper level, he is a reckless act, and recklessness is to return to a pure heart and elevate to a pure spirit. Therefore, Hong Kong's martial arts' yearning for freedom is a bit more happy, and a bit less tragic and tragic.
The "spirit" of the materialistic world is useless, and Wu Yusen used "passage" to express his attachment to the world of martial arts. Because of how lonely it is to be out of breath, I cherish the man who misses the old very much. "Remembering the old" is the highest evaluation in John Woo's value system. This is not the strategy of the predecessor in the material world, but the belief in the fundamental goodness of human beings and the benevolence and righteousness in the heart. In "Blood Two Heroes", his magic stroke is to let Li Xiuxian describe Chow Yun-fat's appearance, using abstract phrases such as "very manly", "very good eyes", "very emotional", etc. The image of the image, the momentum that goes straight to the essence of things, this essence is the spirit, which is the spirit and emotion in Li Xiuxian's mouth. The painter does not hesitate to pick up the brush to draw, which is also regarded as the superiority of Chinese culture without a teacher.
Another reason for John Woo's satisfaction in "Blood Two Heroes" is that this film pays homage to Zhang Che's martial arts hero Di Long and Jiang David's encounter with friends in the "New One-Armed Swordsman" in a suit. Chow Yun-fat's double guns are the long and short swords of the prodigal son Jiang David. When he is shot in one arm, Fa elder brother becomes a one-armed sword; Li Xiuxian is the lonely handsome guy Di Long, because handsome is so lonely, so Ye Qianwen must be a blind singer , otherwise, as soon as she opened her eyes, she would definitely sing "Let's Go Smartly", and the purely spiritual appreciation between those two men would be destroyed. When two knights with different ranks meet a confidant, Li Xiuxian sits on a chair and imagines the scene where Chow Yun-fat stands out from the siege, implying that although the two live in different worlds (Chow Yun-fat represents martial arts, Li Xiuxian represents legal system), but they have long sympathized with each other in spirit. Chow Yun-fat lamented that the world has changed and traditional moral values are no longer popular. He never thought that the one who really understood him was actually a policeman! In the end, Li Xiuxian broke the law and used love to control crimes, which represented John Woo's inheritance of the confidant culture in the martial arts world.
2. The freedom of the four seas, the philosophy of joy and the drama of the superstar are integrated into one
With nostalgia and confidant, the two world No. 1 put down their swords and sit down to talk about Taoism, which naturally leads to the philosophy of freedom and happiness in modern martial arts. Hollywood movies in the 70s and 90s usually used mean streets to express freedom and joy. Robert De Niro's "Mean Streets", John. Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever", and Al Pacino's "Scent of a Woman" are representative works. Watching the sunset in the garbage dump is completely different from watching the sunset on the top of the mountain. The reason why the sunset on the river is particularly beautiful is because the Yangtze River is a "garbage dump". Gufan's distant shadow and blue sky are ancient, not modern lyricism. The mean street is the mean river, and it is also a closely monitored street, so the game world is the essence of this type of film. He is a bit like the tomb of the grave in the films of Hong Kong director Lin Lingdong in the 1980s and 1990s. Poetry, since the sky is the coffin lid and the earth is the coffin board, why not laugh at the suffering and walk in style, so let go of your worries, don’t look back, see through, and struggle again, I—ah—I want to strive for happiness.
But John Woo, starting from "Across the Four Seas" in 1991, has further expressed freedom and happiness as a leisurely stroll. In short, the lame can dance, the robber has loyalty, and the tomb is too generous, watch me drink With red wine, flashing and moving, moral admonitions and poetry appreciation, the tragic places let the wind continue to blow, but I advised you to go back early but you didn't want to go back, I had to hug you and found that you are also beautiful... Zhou Runfa The performance of the two living gods with Leslie Cheung is nothing more than a four-two effort to overcome the strong with softness. When it came to "Chasing", Zhang Hanyu and Fukuyama Masaji didn't understand what a strange living baby was. The two idiots belched big and carried it hard. They were supposed to show two gods. It turned out to be a karaoke between fake foreign devils and Yamano Murao. Can you not be embarrassed and irritable? Are there any limitations of the times in the four seas? I am afraid that the modern "juveniles" pay too much attention to the outside.
The same problem also occurred in 1992's "The Hot Detective". Liang Chaowei was always a little bit worse in John Woo's system. It was a lively spirit, and it was also a spirit of backbone and masculinity. The line I am a policeman is actually very difficult to pronounce, because he has to be manly and emotional. Even Lu Dongbin, who is the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, has a great power to lift a pot while drunk. . On the other hand, when Chow Yun-fat played undercover in "Dragon Tiger", he combined my patience and my happiness very well. John Woo called the large number of explosions and gunfights in "Hot Detective" a blood-stained demeanor.
In fact, the plots of Hong Kong films are not too complicated, but martial arts films are difficult to make because they mainly show the spiritual world. The content of the movie is very dependent on the actor. He needs the actor's temperament and life perception, and he needs to appreciate the actor's eyes and wordless communication. They mainly highlight the true feelings. If the actors have true feelings, the drama will live, otherwise the stage art is good. , is also not useful. The Hong Kong director will especially capture the expressions of the actors. "Fist of the Warriors" is a very good example. Bruce Lee's inner world is fully displayed under the director and the camera. Every frame is capturing his changing expressions. The truth defeats all skills. Er Dongsheng said that when Shaw Brothers made a movie, there were no shots at all. Actors used their eyes to act in the composition of the pictures. In fact, life is not so twisted and bizarre, but people's hearts can be rich and colorful.
The long shot of Chow Yun-fat biting off the warden's ear in "The Prison" has reached the level of slow motion of human flesh, which can be compared with Bruce Lee's dream fight in "Fist of the Fist". The desire for freedom and the resistance to repression are vividly expressed. They have already crossed the camera and reached the spiritual level. They don't need lines, they are all performances! It's all about the actor's heart and understanding of life! Is this some kind of cinematic trick that can do it? Under the atmosphere of Hong Kong's adherence to the Neo-Confucian culture, so many excellent actors/characters have been produced. This is what Jack Smith said, let the actors liberate all mankind! The freedom and liberation of the individual's heart, everyone is doing themselves, what slavish thinking still exists? Compared with "The Shawshank Redemption" later than the Hong Kong movie, the performance is definitely a lower level.
Westerners' interest in Hong Kong movies/performances is based on the most radical underground culture in the United States in the 1960s, with Jack Smith and Andy Warhol as the core. Brecht, a German drama master admired by the Chinese Academy, actually likes Chinese drama. His son stayed at Harvard and studied underground culture for a long time, especially Jack Smith. He thinks that Jack is difficult to interpret in words, because He is abstract. In fact, Jack Smith is not so difficult, because he is very Chinese unintentionally, and he can be seamlessly interpreted with Chinese drama theory: actors should pursue their own spiritual world, pursue spiritual freedom and independent personality, have eye movements, flirt with eyebrows, and lively charm. Use your skills to perform, but use your heart to achieve the unity of human and drama.
In the Hong Kong films of the 1980s and 1990s, both a director and an actor became an actor. It's life and death, the kind of actor that makes this type of film. Tony Leung would like to thank Wong Kar Wai for helping him find a type of film that suits his temperament, otherwise a face just like David Jiang would prove Stephen Chow's joke. The secret to picking up girls is all based on two words - handsome!
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