This movie was originally not directly related to Chinatown, but is it called Chinatown for Mao? It is said that one day, the screenwriter Robert Donald chatted with a policeman who worked in Chinatown. Robert Donald asked him what he did at work every day. The police said that we did nothing. Robert Donald was puzzled, but the police explained. This is an order from the top, "Their (Chinese) culture is too far from ours. Sometimes when we do things, we don't know whether we are stopping crime or assisting crime, so we just ask", Robert When Donald heard it, he thought it was a great symbol, and he incorporated it into the script. Detective Kitty, the leading actor in the film, is set to have worked in Chinatown. He is very familiar with the confused attitude of turning a blind eye to crime. In the opening movie, Mrs. Murray came to him to investigate his husband and mistress. What happened, he said pretentiously: If you love your husband, you can go straight back. In his admonishment to poor fisherman Robert Donald, he said: "You guessed it right, are you happy?" It can be seen that "open your eyes and close your eyes" is actually a mantra he said to customers, although there are elements of indulgence. To a certain extent, it is also what he said from the bottom of his heart. Although he often persuades his clients to be confused, his true nature of uncompromising comes out after he discovers that he has been tricked by others. He is determined to find out all the truth, and what awaits him is a series of bad luck: the investigator is killed. , Fell in love with the mysterious Mrs. Murray, was cut off by the underworld, discovered that the incident was related to the entire Los Angeles city, discovered the amazing scandal of Mrs. Murray's family, and finally fought in the dark Chinatown and lost his lover.
Many film critics included it in the film noir sequence for discussion. Film noir has an important formal standard called the so-called "German expressionism using light", that is, to create a sense of black and white contours of the characters. The best in this regard is of course the classic business card "Malta Black Hawk". But this argument is no longer valid in "Chinatown". Because the Maltese Black Hawk is a black-and-white film, it is hard not to distinguish between black and white. The new Hollywood movie "Chinatown" in the 1970s has already used color and widescreen. How to visually express the so-called "black" style in the new situation? Only use scene conversion. Chinatown arranges many scenes of conspiracy and violence to happen at night. For example, the protagonist and Mrs. Murray were shot at a nursing home at night; Mrs. Murray and the protagonist received a phone call when they were tender, and their expressions changed drastically. The hurried run away also happened at night; In the end, when conflicts broke out in Chinatown, it also happened when night fell. Especially in the last scene, Detective Kitty looked at Mrs. Murray who was killed, dumbfounded. The police ordered his companion to take him off the scene. His companion hurriedly held him and said in his ear, "Forget it." , Kitty, this is Chinatown." At this time, countless Chinese with blank expressions gathered around to watch the excitement, and the police were shouting to maintain order. Then a lift lens slowly pulled away from the protagonist, slowly rising into the sky, looking down at the dark night, shredded papers flying, and indifferent Chinatown-the camera was pulled away from the protagonist, reminding us that the protagonist’s encounter was nothing. In individual cases, crime will continue to spread. "Chinatown" is a landmark exploration of how film noir can behave in the color era. Until 20 years later, the black business card "L.A. Confidential" can still see the scene arrangement logic similar to "Chinatown"-conspiracy and fighting will always happen at night. (change)
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