"Dragon City Years" was originally called "Underworld", but it was renamed to "Dragon City Years" for the mainland market, and even the poster was changed. In fact, I like the original "Underworld" poster very much. There is a sense of historical time, far more than a few characters squeezed into one picture. According to Du Qifeng's original idea, "Dragon City Years" should be the last part of his gangster epic. It turned out that this film was four hours long, but it was cut to 180 minutes in Cannes, and it was cut to 180 minutes when it was released in the mainland. 90 minutes. The mainland version should have the most changes. It is estimated that even the ending was designed to be positive and evil. In fact, the Hong Kong version divided the film into two episodes. The next episode has not yet been released, and the ending should be another. In fact, the ending of the mainland version is very different from the style of To Qifeng's works. If you have watched "Very Sudden" and "Dark Flower" in previous Galaxy images, you will understand. So much violence has been cut out that a 90 minute movie is very difficult to read, some parts are hard to understand, so many characters, so many clues, so many complex relationships, it's really hard to tell in 90 minutes Qing, it's the same feeling as when I watched "Judo Dragon and Tiger", there are too many problems in the connection of the plot. But I still felt a kind of tension in To Qifeng's work in a fragmented story, and although the fragmented plot gave me a headache, it instead strengthened my desire to see the four-hour version of the original film.
The plot of the film is actually not complicated. It is about the story of the struggle for the position of the boss between the backbones of the two clubs, Da D and Ale, when the power within the underworld club is handed over. Characters at different levels, as well as police officers outside the community. It should be said that the community can be divided into three layers of characters. The first layer is the old guys of the uncle generation. Although they no longer have power, they still have generation status as the capital of the right to speak. The second layer is the most powerful backbone of the two clubs, Da D and Ale, as candidates for the boss. The third layer is the new generation of characters. They have the lowest status in the society and are ordered by their own bosses, but they are the direct executors of the action tasks. As the main characters of the film, Da D and Ale are two types of gangster characters. Da D is arrogant and brave, while Ale is very savage. They both started canvassing for the competition for the boss position. In terms of power and actions, Da D is stronger than Ale, but Da D's publicity style does not win him the hearts of the people. Moreover, Da D acts bravely and seldom, and only uses violent threats and inducements to attract support. ticket. On the other hand, Ale has a very deep city government and a face that pretends to be successful. He is easy to be enthusiastic and has attracted a lot of reputation in the community.
At the beginning, the elders of the uncles and uncles on the first floor discussed who should be the boss, and the big D and Ale on the second floor fought each other secretly. After deciding who would win, the plot changed. The faucet stick began to become the focus of the film, so those new generation characters on the third floor appeared. The competition for the faucet stick was the climax of the whole film. There were many competing competitions. You chased after me. , The scheduling is wonderful. In fact, the faucet stick is just a symbolic object, and it does not really determine the ownership of power, but since Ale has the upper hand, but Da D is unwilling, so who gets this symbol of power becomes important. , if Ale gets it, then the big D will lose morally, and if the big D gets it, then the two will become a tie, and the big D will have room. The Dragon Head Stick also became the last card of the big D, because his open mouth forced him to the Jedi, and the madness of the independent portal has made him the target of the whole community. In fact, the big D just screamed in frustration. , may not have the courage to do so. Judging from the later development of the film's storyline, in fact, Big D is basically still focused on the community.
The film is unique in the design of the characters at different levels in the community, and the performances of the actors are indeed quite in place. The characters interpreted in "Black Gold" and "Jianghu". I just watched his "Song of Everlasting Regret" a few days ago, and he is also able to grasp a completely different type of introverted character. The multi-faceted nature of Tony Leung's acting skills has been obvious to all over the years and can only be described as superb. The other protagonist, Ren Dahua, who can not be ignored, although he is an old drama player, he does not have as many works as Liang Jiahui. However, in recent years, he has indeed reappeared under To Qifeng's hands. However, the role of Ale is relatively introverted. There is no role like Big D, so it's easy to play, so Tony Leung's edge should overshadow Ren Dahua, but Ren Dahua's handling of the role of Ale is more like learning Corleone in "The Godfather II". He lives a very low-key life. Not revealing, but his heart is vicious. For example, the scene where Ale greets the neighbors in the film does not make people feel the shadow of a gang boss. Although Ren Dahua's performance is not up to the level of Dini Road, it is still very convincing and satisfying. of.
Originally played by Gu Tianle, Zhan Mi was also a very important character, but due to the relationship between the first and second episodes and the deletion, he did not have many scenes in this film, so he was reduced to a supporting role. Zhan Mi was an undercover policeman, but in fact this character was in the relationship between the police and the police. The fringe people among the underworld have a style as vague as Tony Leung in "Infernal Affairs". On the one hand, they abide by the principle of being a policeman and on the other hand they are very loyal. In fact, in Johnnie To's gangster movies, the police and the underworld are actually the upper and lower layers of the social structure, which can be experienced in Johnnie To's old work "PTU". As said in the dialogue between Wang Tianlin and Jiang David in the film, the underworld has infiltrated into every corner of society, and you can't clean it up. The underworld as a bottom-level institution actually plays a role in management, maintaining the following order, The upper-level institutions must control the underworld and maintain social stability. The key to maintaining a balance between the police and the underworld as a relationship between the upper and lower levels is to maintain a balance. Of course, this point of view cannot be recognized in the mainland, so it is necessary to delete and modify the film, so there will be such an ending. This ending actually deviates from the original intention of To Qifeng's work, so don't take it too seriously.
From the many distinct characters, we can see Du Qifeng's meticulous handling of the film. The most feared thing in group portraits is that too many characters lead to insufficient scenes and make each character's face blurred, but every supporting role in the film is set with a distinct personality. The few scenes make the characters shine. Zhang Jiahui has two very good scenes, one is eating a spoon without changing his face when facing the big D on the boat at the beginning, and the other is facing the enemy saying "I work for the club" and slowly stabbed the opponent with a knife. Show the character's ruthlessness and loyalty. The role of Lin Xue talks about the rules of the gang every day, which is very dogmatic, but he plays a small character who is incompetent but who is loyal. The rules and regulations of the society are echoed, but the concept of highlighting the characteristics of the underworld has been downplayed due to the abridgement. The rival scene between Lin Jiadong and Lin Xue is very interesting. The two of them were ordered by the boss to get the dragon head stick. Behind them, their bosses negotiated, and finally led to the final failure of the big D. In fact, it is in this link that Lin Jiadong's role At the beginning, his position was on the side of Big D, and then his boss changed his position because Big D claimed to be independent, so Lin Jiadong's position also turned to Ale's side. The reason for the failure of the big D is that it loses people's hearts.
A gangster movie that doesn't use a gun should be said to be incredible, but it's not that there are no violent scenes in "Dragon City Years". In fact, the movie has a lot of bloody and violent actions, and we know that there are many similar scenes that have been Deleted, but the violence of those actions is not weaker than the power of the gun. But these scenes are effectively controlled by To Qifeng to a relatively small number. Action scenes are not the feature of this film, and the tension of the story lies in the ups and downs and the twists and turns of the plot, which mobilize the audience's thinking all the time. Every small role in a character relationship intertwined from top to bottom may affect the overall change, and there are various variability in the story. Compared with "The Legend of Sister-in-law", which also pursues the style of gangster literary films, "Dragon City Years" is undoubtedly excellent, and Du Qifeng's experienced control is indeed not comparable to that of Huang Jingfu. The difference between the two films lies in "Sister-in-law" There are quite a lot of character settings in "Legend", but the characters are blurred, the story is flat and without ups and downs, and the rare action scenes have no tension at all. In these respects, "Dragon City Years" is successful.
To Qifeng took this film seriously to create a classic. He did not pursue a fancy technique too much, but made the film look a little simple in all aspects, but showed a great atmosphere in the seemingly clumsy picture. . After all, it is to make a series of stories. Lao Du spends a lot of thought on the details of textual research, arranges the ins and outs of each line and each character in an organic and reasonable manner, and makes the whole story rely on the real social background. Gives a sense of familiarity. I also hope to see a Chinese gangster literary film of the same level as "The Godfather", but To Qifeng's current ability cannot push this series to this level, but if To Qifeng can concentrate on making it, it may not be possible in the future.
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