Christian preachers have a set of sayings to persuade people to believe in the Lord: Women in the world who give birth to children are all mothers, but only the one who is willing to sacrifice for you is your mother. This means that there are tens of thousands of gods in this world, but only Jesus is willing to shed his own blood to wash away your sins, so he is the true God. After watching "Drug War", I would also like to say something similar: "This world's best police and criminal film can be a star, but only works shot for us can truly resonate with us."
"Drug War" is Du Qifeng's official march. The first film in the mainland market. Before that, his work has been released in mainland many times, such as "Single Man", "High Altitude Love II" and other romantic light comedies and "Underworld" (the mainland release version is called "Dragon" "City Years"), "The Sparrow", "The Detective" and other police movies, but the romantic comedy is originally his game skit, and the various "self-debuted" police movies that have been abridged have let down his good methods in vain, and it can be said that they can't really reflect. His strength.
The plot of "Drug War" is a traditional one-line narrative, but it is compact and complex, with repeated climaxes. Starting from an accidental explosion of a drug manufacturing factory, the perspective follows the drug dealer played by Gu Tianle and the police officer played by Sun Honglei, deep into the huge underground kingdom of drug manufacturing, drug trafficking, and drug trafficking, and all walks of life have appeared. Just as the police network was about to gather, the story suddenly emerged. The tragic ending can not help but reminds people of "Yinghe"'s masterpieces "Very Sudden" and "True Hero."
The first time I watched "Drug War", the feeling is that the story is quite "full", leaving little room for characters and emotions. After reading the story, the impression will be very different. The reason is that the details in the film are densely laid out, and it is difficult to get a clue in the first pass. Some of these details draw the characters vividly in just a few strokes, while others are full of colors and twists and turns. It depends on whether the audience understands it.
Second, the characters
The drug dealer Cai Tianming played by Louis Koo in the film is a fierce character. However, the film cleverly divides his character into many sides and reveals it to the audience layer by layer. He rescued the police officer at a critical juncture and gave up running away when he had a gun in his hand. These smoke bombs effectively confuse the audience. He burned money in the drug factory for a while, and the human touch reached a climax. The most wonderful thing is that the film also clearly gives the opposite explanation. Police officer Zhang did not understand his love after being rescued for a period of time. Cai Tianming later angered the truck driver. Perhaps there was an element of venting anger in it, revealing this. A hostile spirit in people's hearts. Before he put down the pistol, the camera gave a close-up of the pistol, with a bright police light in the background, clearly revealing the words "last resort".
A gunfight at the entrance of the elementary school focused on his brutality. Both the police and the robber still have a moral bottom line, at least when they retreat, they know that they want to rescue the injured woman. As soon as he started, he drove straight to the child. First, he knocked over two policewomen, and then used the injured police officer Beckham as a bait to hunt down the fellow who was trying to rescue her. This kind of cruelty seems unexpected, but when I think about it, there is actually a pavement.
The main characters are like this, the little people who have been taken in a stroke are equally distinct. Needless to say, the deaf and the deaf, the two police officers from Yuejiang got out of the car and relieved their hands. When passing the pass, there was a shot. Beckham noticed the mineral water bottles in their car with urine. Obviously the two had been following them. for a long time.
A hidden line of affection is the pair of Xiaoxiang and Xiaobei. From the beginning of the discovery of the case of human possession of drugs, Xiaoxiang has been caring about Xiaobei, and what Xiaobei has in his heart seems to be Officer Zhang only. The result of this kind of emotion brewing to the extreme was that during a school shootout, Xiaoxiang furiously rushed out to save Xiaobei, and Cai Tianming greeted him with a shot. The warm color that has been for a long time, the ending is nothing more than that.
Gloomy is the main tone of "Drug War". The empty and cold northern land in the film does not have the feasting and feasting of Xiangjiang River, but it highlights the theme of "inhumanity". From this point of view, Johnnie To has adjusted his own style very well.
Three, style
Director Du’s previous movies have a strong sense of form, such as character positions, dramatic lighting, and cold character appearances. This is his unique style, but at the same time it is also a kind of stereotype. Starting from "Death Gold", he has worked hard to expand his image space in terms of color and narrative. This effort is more obvious in this "Drug War". The film has almost no deliberate sense of form, and the audience's attention is completely Attracted by the smooth narrative. I have to say that this is a significant step taken by Johnnie To.
The lack of a sense of form does not mean that "Drug War" lacks personality. In fact, this movie can be said to be a masterpiece of various techniques used by Johnnie To. For example, when Police Officer Zhang negotiated with a drug dealer, he carefully arranged the camera but was first blocked by the abalone bowl and vinegar bottle, and finally moved to a suitable position, but was then held by his opponent to play. This repetitive and progressive sense of humor forms a poetic rhythm, and any fan of the Galaxy will smile knowingly because he thinks of similar passages in his previous works.
Another example is the position and lighting. If you look carefully, his favorite blue top light and character position still exist, but they are placed out of the focus of the lens and only serve as a foil.
Perhaps it can be said that "Drug War" represents a sublimation in Du Qifeng's creative career. The sense of form that was previously displayed in the open is hidden, and it is organically integrated into the progress of the story and the portrayal of the characters. Compared with works such as "Exile" and "PTU" with strong personal style, "Drug War" may seem less publicistic, but it represents an important attempt by Johnnie To.
Fourth, the standard
"Drug War" is known as the "largest-scale domestic police and criminal film". Judging from the finished film, it has indeed broken through some of the taboos in similar themes in China in the past. For example, gangsters killed a large number of police officers and police officers taking drugs (in order to solve the case), and there were also scenes of drug trafficking and drug production. If the film can pass the review, the investor Hairun Films Company should have played a significant role in it.
What's interesting is that, as far as I know, audiences who have watched movies generally feel that "there is nothing out of the ordinary". This seems to indicate that the audience is fully able to accept this level of violence and crime scenes, and is used to it. This is undoubtedly due to the influence of a large number of excellent overseas police films. Compared with foreign gangster films and gangster films, it is always difficult for our country’s gangster films to follow the normal track of genre films. One of the reasons lies in the harsh censorship standards. Various restrictions on hand-and-foot restraints not only hinder the creation. The author truthfully reflects the characters and life in the legal field, and also violates some basic laws of genre films, making it difficult for the work to attract the audience.
"Drug War" is the product of Du Qifeng dancing with these shackles. We have seen that as a Hong Kong director, Johnnie To is smart not to make too many value judgments this time, and only concentrates on telling his own story. On the one hand, he suppressed the deliberate exaggeration of crime in Hong Kong police and criminal films, and on the other hand, he avoided the unrestrained preaching in the main theme film.
One shot is very interesting. Outside the Ezhou drug manufacturing plant, the Jinhai police officers lent money to the local police officers who had just met. On the surveillance side, the culprits were burning the hundred-yuan bills as paper money, and the police officers counted only a few pieces of "Great Unity". ". In just one shot, it not only explained the humane side of both sides, but also pointed out the selfless spirit of the police. It doesn't preach, but it can move people even more.
With the escort of the owner and the help of scriptwriters such as Wei Jiahui and You Naihai, "Drug War" was released smoothly. Although it is not lacking in jerky, with traces of first running-in, it is after all a police movie that really concerns us. Chinese audiences undoubtedly hope to see more of our own stories on the screen, and hope that "Drug War" is just the beginning.
Kazama Falcon
April 4, 2013 in Beijing
, "Hainan Daily" April 8, 2013
http://hnrb.hinews.cn/html/2013-04/08/content_33_1.htm
wrote no less than the article details, simply To say a few more:
1. At the beginning, hunt down drug dealers by the highway, and the billboard behind it says "Pure forest, treat people with pureness."-it depends on what you think.
2. There is only one scene in the whole film that has nothing to do with narrative. Which is it? Answer: ice fishing. ——It depends on what you think.
3. Why didn't Cai Tianming escape by the Ezhou Expressway? Because at this time it is 1 to 10 slivers. In the end, the power balance when he started his hands was: 7+1 for the drug dealer, plus two drivers of waste wood daoists, for a total of 4 vehicles. The police consisted of 5 vehicles and 13 officers.
4. Cai spent one night with his godfather and brother, why didn't he talk about it at that time? Afraid of monitoring? Write it with a pen! Ah, at that time, I had the heart to let both parties die together!
5. When Cai drove the school bus away, exposing the police and the police to the firepower of each other, each of them carried a woman, very symmetrical.
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