(the original text was published on bbs.org.hk Hong Kong website at Jun 17 2004, 17:20:11)
After watching "The Big Event", I deeply felt that the film was based on film, communication theory, journalism and even cultural studies. A must-see Hong Kong movie. It is no wonder that the Cannes Film Festival has taken a fancy to it. It is true that the film "The Big Event", with its elegant and popular shooting techniques, simple material (the old-fashioned game of catching a thief), and all kinds of allegories derived from the plot and dialogue, is indeed To Qifeng's response. The current Hong Kong society has even responded to the sincerity of "movie", the art itself.
＊To tease the language of video with the language of video - truth and fiction: from long shot to split and then put together again *
If you miss the few minutes of long shots at the beginning of the film, it is indeed a loss for the audience. The long shot is like an objective third party, starting with the uniformed police officer asking the gangster "What's the matter with the bag?" reality.
The plot mentioned how the inspector Rebecca, played by Chen Huilin, used the deliberately selected images (montages) to restore the image of the police force. Therefore, the long shot (real) at the beginning of the film forms a strong correspondence with the way the inspector handles the case-handling film (unreal) in the plot.
The "montage" in the language of the film itself is just like the way that the inspector handles the case-handling film. It is purposefully screened, cut, and assembled to express a specific message (in the film, the message to be expressed is the heroic behavior of the police) . John To uses film language (the film itself) to tease the authenticity of the video media itself. His thought and fine design are indeed rare in Hong Kong-made films.
In addition, the final arrangement of the film is from the beginning to the end of the policeman Zhang Jiahui, who has never put on a camera lens on his body and has not been exposed on TV. He successfully rescued the policeman who thought he could know all the facts and control the situation by putting on the camera lens. Inspector Rebecca of the overall situation also made a very thoughtful arrangement - no matter how broad and strong the video information is, no one can always know all the truth.
*Media and power - whoever controls the media has power*
The relationship between media and power is also one of the focuses of the film. Soldiers and thieves, where the two sides compete against each other's wits and strengths, are not uncommon in Hong Kong-made films, but To Qifeng has played a new interest. The police used the edited images and distributed them to the public on TV, in an attempt to restore the reputation of the police force; however, the gang used the Internet, a channel with stronger communication power than television, to distribute the police who were driven by the gang’s bombs into the poor alleys and “fun with the gang and the people. The video of "Taiwan Food and Rice" dismantled the police's diorama and made the police make a fool of themselves in front of the public and the media. Here, the victory or defeat of the police and the criminals is not only based on "catch" and "walk away", but also based on "who can control the media and the distribution of information". In this age of information flooding, whoever controls the media and who controls the distribution of information has power. This has become an almost global power game. Johnnie
peak of this phenomenon questioned and laments in the film revealed.
* Respect for both refined and popular – not only entertaining in addition to discussion and questioning *
To Qifeng's "The Big Event" has indeed achieved "respect for both refined and popular". Ordinary audiences can get the entertainment interest of police and gangster films from the wits and humor of police and gangsters, and audiences who are more sensitive to social/media issues can also find interest in the in-depth reading of the film. In fact, apart from the above, John To has satirical references to the quality of Hong Kong's media and the political reality.
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