It can be said that the first half of the film was very well shot. Whether it is from the setting of the prosperous Tang Dynasty or the suspenseful setting, the audience will soon be brought into the film. However, screenwriter Zhang Jialu seems to be uncertain whether to tell a fantasy story or a real story, which makes "Empire of Heaven" sometimes like a fantasy movie, sometimes like a reality movie, or in other words, when it needs fantasy, it becomes Fantasy films become reality films when they are not needed. Therefore, this caused us to see that kind of helpless plot in "Di Renjie", and let Di Renjie come out to investigate the case, but found that it was still a "fantastic thing". The most important point of a qualified suspense film is the irreplaceability and sufficient rationality of its answers. However, it is precisely these two points that "Empire of Babel" failed to achieve, which makes this so-called suspense a bit deceiving. feel. A good suspense film not only gives people a sense of sudden realization after watching it, but also has the urge to make the audience look back for details, but after watching "Empire of Heaven", we found that this so-called suspense film does not have How many details are hidden in the plot, not only will people not have the urge to look back, but also make people want to curse.
However, it is the little bit of suspense that remains, which has also been diluted into a mediocre costume drama by the platter-like patchwork of the film. Among them, the most typical and most annoying is the action drama. Personally, I feel that Tsui Hark is very clear that this untenable suspense story can't hold up the nearly two-hour film length. We can only resolutely implement the method of "suspense is not enough, play to make up". It's just that this time Tsui Hark is in his best field. Sammo Hung is an excellent action star, but this does not mean that he is an excellent martial arts instructor. Sammo Hung's action design has always lacked enough spirituality, which is more suitable for modern kung fu films that are punched to the flesh, but not suitable for "Empire of Heaven", which is extremely romantic in need. The action design in the film is neither innovative nor too many partial close-ups, making the film the most boring "kung fu film" I have seen in recent years. There are only a few suspenseful elements left in the film, which became the only motivation for me to watch the film. The action elements in "Empire of Babel" are like a careless child doing a fill-in-the-blank question, completely free to do whatever they want. No matter whether the plot needs it or not, they have to force a lengthy action scene into it at every turn, so the film is constantly suspenseful. Swinging between movies and kung fu movies, it seems that they want to please both, but in fact it is because they are not. But I am also glad that Sammo Hung stuffed so many action scenes, so that the film did not have too many dog-blood love triangles (the relationship between the characters in the film already has such signs), otherwise, "Empire of Heaven" can really become a A boring hodgepodge.
If we deeply analyze the few remaining suspense elements in the film, we have to sadly discover that the protagonist of the film, Di Renjie, has nothing to do with the solution of the mystery. From the moment he appeared on the scene, he was led by the nose by the mastermind of the murder case, and then he continued to beat people during the process of being led. The Chiyan Golden Turtle was told by the mastermind of the murder, Shatuo, and it was Shangguan Jinger who pointed out that the direction of the case was wrong. , and found the most crucial evidence to solve the mystery is Pei Donglai. My God, apart from finding out that Shangguan Jinger is the national teacher Lu Li, a secret that has little to do with the case (and indirectly caused Shangguan Jinger's death), Di Renjie, what did you do? In a suspense film, the most irreplaceable role is the protagonist of the detective, but in "Empire of Heaven", Di Renjie is more tragic than the answer of the film, the answer of the film can only be replaced, and Di Renjie seems to be completely absent in this film. necessary to exist. In the end, I found out that the most critical character in the film is actually Pei Donglai, who was so arrogant and not very popular at the beginning. This gentleman is affectionate, righteous, courageous and resourceful. Too early, the film could have been renamed to "The Incredible Case of the White-headed Detective in the Tang Dynasty".
From the perspective of an entertainment film, "Empire of Babel" is still qualified, but for Tsui Hark's label, all the elements in the film did not meet our expectations, even its special effects (Tsui Hark can be said to be one of the best in Hong Kong films The pioneer of computer special effects) is not necessarily better than his "New Shushan". Xu Laoguai Xu Laoguai, only see his "old" but not "weird".
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