A good actor is inseparable from a good director.
This is true at any stage of an actor's life.
And, the older you get, the more truth it becomes.
The director is rubbish, the movie is definitely rubbish, the movie is rubbish, the drama bones... turn the tide?
Oh, if people don't say that he can't guarantee the evening festival, it can be regarded as caring for the elderly.
"British Showdown" proves that Jackie Chan is still a good actor.
This film is invested by China, and the creative team, from the director to the screenwriter to the main and supporting characters, are mostly Westerners.
Among the living Chinese actors, only Jackie Chan can enjoy this kind of treatment.
The finished product is like a standard western industrial masterpiece.
——Not many personalities, but properly grabbed your attention from start to finish.
Who is the director?
Martin Campbell, filmed "007: Golden Eye" and "007: Battle of the Golden Casino."
There are not many works that this director can produce, but he is very familiar with this kind of "lone hero + political conspiracy" drama.
"British Showdown" tells exactly such a story -
The former Chinese special forces are now living with their daughters in the UK. In a terrorist attack, his daughter tragically died. The lonely old man took a risk and embarked on the road of revenge.
The old man's revenge is not a fresh story idea.
As early as in ancient Greek times, Homer pioneered such stories with The Odyssey.
To this day, the adventures of Odysseus have been recounted many times, but they still move us.
Guan, played by Jackie Chan, has inherited the mantle of Odysseus in at least the following two points:
First, aging and wandering:
They were heroes before, but now, the heroes are old.
Old Odysseus was trapped on the island of Calypso, while Guan was adrift in the British Isles.
Second, wisdom and disobedience to old age:
Known for his resourcefulness, Odysseus sacrificed his Trojan horse strategy in the Trojan War, and used his strategy to overcome many obstacles on his way home.
Guan is also not good at brute force and clever tricks, building bombs, setting traps, and step by step to the camp to find out who the murderer is.
The most important thing is the hard work and aggressiveness they showed during their adventures, as if at some point, they forgot that they were an old man.
These are two very important points, because they touch the two deepest emotions of human beings-
One is the fear of old age and death, which is pity and sympathy for an aging and powerless person;
The second is the worship of exquisite craftsmanship, the praise of knowing that it cannot be done, and the affirmation of the pioneering spirit of human beings.
In other words, on the one hand it makes us cry, on the other hand it makes us burn, and the emotional charm of the story lies in these two aspects.
If you can handle the above two points well, it will generally be a good story, like "Breaking Bad".
If you ignore one of them, you will lose a kind of charm, such as "Slaying the Wolf, Greed the Wolf".
A police officer who is in his prime is obviously not as good as a cancer-stricken teacher who can arouse our sympathy.
"British Showdown" not only captures these two points, but also handles them very well.
Guan's aging and weakness, the pain of losing his daughter, the director explained it clearly with only a few strokes——
He was holding his dead daughter in the rubble, he looked at his daughter's room, he called the police for clues, he visited Deputy Minister Hennessy, he disguised a tool car and began to carry out his plan.
No exaggeration, very restrained.
In these scenes, Jackie Chan doesn't even need to "act", he just needs to lose his face. Actions speak for themselves. Everyone knows what kind of torture this old man is going through in his heart.
Then, it is the highlight of the film. Guan, through repeated actions, threatens Hennessy, who may know who the real murderer is.
These plays basically follow an "ABAB" structure——
Guan went to Hennessy, planned the bombing, and wanted the name of the person; Hennessy moved, strengthened his defense, and pursued Guan; Guan went to Hennessy again...and so on and so forth.
What makes people excited is how Guan overcomes difficulties and wins as the difficulties escalate step by step.
This may be Martin Campbell's housekeeping skills.
Guan's several actions were all thrillingly filmed by the director.
The goal is clear, the means is clear, the rhythm is appropriate, and the tension is moderate, which will neither make people feel procrastinated nor blunt, and there is no suspicion of getting through.
In fact, as a film with dual protagonists and multi-line narrative, there are not many scenes in the film.
However, because the director has such a preference for him, he attracts all our sympathy, worry, hope and cheers.
Another protagonist, Hennessy, is played by Pierce Brosnan, who is famous for playing James Bond many times, and he also played "GoldenEye".
In the film, Hennessy, as a high-ranking Commonwealth official, plays the role of mediator between British officials and Irish nationalists.
The boss put pressure on him to catch the terrorist as soon as possible.
Terrorists lurk around him, steal information from him, and plan bombings.
He himself wanted to keep his official position, but also had sympathy for the nationalists, and did not want to intensify the contradiction between the two sides.
The psychology of this character is subtle and layered, and does not fall into the stereotype of villains who are often rigid and thin.
He's actually a good guy and doesn't know the killer, yet most of Guan's actions are directed at him.
This worries us that the movie doesn't give Guan enough time to deal with the real killer.
This worry was finally dispelled.
We will find out later that the account of the murderer and the exposure of the murderer have always been quietly and methodically advancing.
Therefore, when the murderer is finally locked, and the revenge is successful in one pass, we will not feel abrupt.
The problem with the character Hennessy is that he carries too much background information.
The large-scale, informative dialogue not only confuses the audience, but also undermines the character.
It takes more scenes of dilemma before we can feel the dilemma of this character.
So, compared to Jackie Chan, Brosnan is actually unfortunate, he didn't have the opportunity to play his acting skills.
Then... we will happily leave the applause to Jackie Chan!
The big brother who has always been very good at fighting, in this film, suddenly he is not so good at fighting.
But this just shows that being able to fight is not the only winning skill of Big Brother.
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