Johnnie To's Black Romance - Film Review of "Underworld 1: Years in the Dragon City"

Election

Foreword:

David Bordwell said that Hong Kong films are a success story in film history. From the perspective of the development of film history, after the climax of the 1980s, Hong Kong films, known as "Oriental Hollywood", have also been constantly changing with the changes in Hong Kong society. In the past, action films, comedy films, gangster films, horror films, thousands of The pattern of art films, supernatural films, martial arts films, and zombie films has become a bleak facade for action films and comedy films. "Hong Kong film decline" seems to be the fate of Hong Kong film. Fortunately, in this small and multicultural land, the soil for film creation is still there, and it has not been dragged down by the film industry that has disappeared. Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Zhou Xingchi, Wang Jing and others continued their familiar commercial style, while Wang Jiawei, Xu Anhua, Guan Jinpeng and others adhered to their own thinking about people and people, people and society, Liu Weiqiang, Chen Musheng, Ma Chucheng, Chen Guo, Chen Kexin and others left their unique marks in the history of Hong Kong film in their different forms. Among them, the one who impressed me the most, apart from Wong Kar-wai, who is "incurable in literature and art", is John To, who "integrates realism and black romance". Like Tsui Hark, John Woo, and Lin Lingdong in New Wave directors, To Qifeng is obsessed with themes such as Jianghu underworld and men's love, but he is unique. He not only has considerable box office appeal, but also adheres to his "local creation" concept, and together with the "Galaxy Imaging" he founded, he has made great contributions to the continuation of the commercial tradition of Hong Kong films and the artistic innovation of gangster films.

1. The style of Johnnie To's gangster movies - "realistic" gangster movies

Hong Kong's gangster films can be divided into two types: realism and non-realism (it is worth noting that "realism" here refers to a film creation orientation and style of work, not to the underworld image in the film and the underworld image in the real world. Correspondence), in this sense, the underworld photographed by John Woo is an extremely romantic and full of personal ambitions. For example, in Wang Jing's "God of Gamblers Series", Zhou Runfa and Zhou Xingchi's two generations of gambling gods are depicted as invincible players in the world, and even idols with supernatural powers; "Knights" are full of extreme romantic temperament, they are just night owls in this bustling metropolis. When it comes to realistic gangster movies, To Qifeng must be mentioned. If Yang Dechang's film is a "surgical lamp" in Taiwan's urban society, which presents the bloody social reality without modification, then John To's gangster film should be The "surgical light" of Hong Kong society, where underworld elements are ubiquitous, shows the struggles or games within Hong Kong society, between gangsters, and between black and white to the audience one by one. In addition to the "chivalry" emphasized by John Woo, Johnnie To's gangster films are more influenced by the noir films of French director Pierre Melville and others, emphasizing "destiny", you can see the cold spirit, superb photography, Stylistic elements such as unpredictable plot development, grand scene scheduling, fascinating soundtrack and concise editing.

2. The theme of Johnnie To's gangster movies - the civilianized underworld

"The underworld has always been an unrecognized existence, but in fact they have a large group. In Hong Kong, it seems that everyone has a friend who is the underworld. The underworld is not far from us, it is by our side. We There have been many movies about gangsters, but I want to make a very calm movie that tells the stories of gangsters in a life-like way, instead of killing them." - Johnnie To

What Johnnie To shows us is a civilian underworld. The gang boss is more interested in profit than the pony brother; the fate of the characters in the rivers and lakes is not controlled by himself, but has its cruel fate; the grudges are not resolved by street fighting, but more like a political wrestling, intrigue and deceit ;

(1) Heavy love & heavy profit: the battle of the leading stick

"Underworld 1: Years in the Dragon City" (2005) depicts the "He Liansheng" (Triad, also known as Oji), Hong Kong's oldest social organization (gang), which originated when Sun Yat-sen organized the revolutionary party to overthrow In the era of the Manchu Qing court, growing up during the British colonial rule, "they chose who to speak (i.e., those in power), 100 years earlier than Hong Kong's election of the chief executive." At the beginning of the film, a large section of gang members recites the rules of the gang collectively. In the film, the democratic election hosted by Deng Bo (Wang Tianlin played by Wang Jing's father, the king of bad films), and the "worship brothers" after Ale (Ren Dahua) was elected as the clerk. "Rituals, showing real gangster rituals. Behind such a solemn and solemn ceremony, there is the struggle between Big D (played by Tony Leung Ka Fai) and Ah Le in order to get the leading stick and become the talker. It can be said that Ale was elected by everyone, but Da D is more like a lunatic. In order to get the stick that symbolizes business, power, and fame, except for the common temptation of money in political struggles, he will do anything to kidnap people participating in the election. The uncle, kidnapped the custodian of the faucet stick, and even made a riot in the prison, threatening to set up a "Xinhe Liansheng", regardless of the gang rules we heard in the title, and the morality and morality we often see in other gangster movies. in principle. After Ale successfully "settled up" the big D as the speaker, disregarding previous suspicions, he and the big D became brothers, and they were in harmony. But ironically, when Big D proposed to Ale to be a "double talker" with him, Ale smashed Big D to death with a stone in front of his own children, and then chased and killed Big D's wife. After the landfill, it sped away without changing its color. It can be seen that the struggle of the underworld and the excitement of the street fighting are the appearance, the brotherhood is a glorified story, and the struggle for power is its essence.

(2) Fate: the trap of existentialism

Existentialist master Sartre said: "Any ending is a predetermined 'wall', you know where it will be, no matter which direction you go, it will always be there waiting for you."

As mentioned earlier, Melville's film has a strong fatalism ("The Red Circle", Le cercle rouge , 1970). To Qifeng was deeply influenced. "Underworld" Ale, Da D and other gangsters with huge ambitions and single-mindedly seize the leading stick will eventually become slaves of power and victims in the pursuit of power by others (Da D died in the first place) Department, Ale died in "Underworld 2: Peace is Precious", and was killed by the next speaker candidate Jimmy's subordinate with a faucet). Aircraft (played by Zhang Jiahui) is a stubborn and dedicated character who works for the community with his life. On the surface, he has a bright future, but he is always just a puppet in the hands of others. Clearly, there will be no good ending to the underworld struggle that requires a lot of effort to lay out a network of power.

(3) Violent aesthetics: calm and objective, full of tension

One of the prerequisites for the emergence and dissemination of violence aesthetics is an audience with business ethics and basic moral judgment ability, a highly legalized society, and the free right to choose cultural products. Under such a premise, To Qifeng was able to objectively display violence and return the ruler for measuring morality to the audience.

Woo Yusen's aesthetics of violence emphasizes the impact and appreciation of the conflict process. Guns, as a tool of violence in modern society, make the conflict process bloody and bring visual and auditory sensory stimulation. In contrast, To Qifeng went against the times, using more primitive wooden boxes, stones, wine bottles, knives and other tools to replace the fast-paced rush into a more tense scene, lengthening the death process, thereby increasing the cruelty of violence. In "Underworld 1", several gangsters didn't use guns at all. After Da D kidnapped Brother Longgen (played by Yu Yuanwen) and Guan Tsaisen (played by Hong Luoba), put them in a wooden box and kicked them down the hillside, moved them up and kicked them down again. It is outrageous; Ale's first cooperation with the big D after he successfully became a talker was to use a long knife and a wine bottle to hack the dinosaur (played by Yuanbao) who came to negotiate alive, and the whole process was airtight. It was carried out in a gloomy space, and only tools were seen, but no blood was seen, which made people shudder.

The objective, real, and calm narrative of violence is a distinctive feature of Galaxy Mapping. Not only the underworld uses violence, but the police also often use violence. In To Qifeng's films, you don't see dashing shooting poses and suffocating slow-motion decompositions, but instead stimulate our nerves with documentary methods and sound effects. In order to protect the faucet stick, the plane and Jimmy (Gu Tianle) dealt with the long hair (Zhao Zhicheng) under the big D on the street. After hitting the long hair, after picking up the trash can and covering it, he was beaten violently. This soundtrack ( Luo Dayou! ) is the simplest monophonic structure and chords, the most common acoustic guitar, and the bloody scenes that are obviously disgusting. But it was reconciled to be very neutral, as if the daily life of the underworld boys was like this. The real decisive battle is at the end. A calm and objective long shot records the process of Ah Lesheng smashing Da D to death and shoveling Da D's wife to death. The monkey next to him is so frightened that he covers his child, but the surrounding is surrounded by the fragrance of birds and flowers and the gurgling of water. After Ale got into the car, the lyrics of "Song to Heaven" were "We meet each other with sympathy and mutual encouragement, and the two words of morality and righteousness face the earth and the sky ", which is extremely ironic.

3. Black images of Johnnie To's gangster films: lines and tones, black images

One of the meanings of space for film refers to the space captured by the lens, that is, the space in which a part of the real space is captured by the lens and preserved on the film. Lines and tones are a reshaping of ordinary space for films. Lines exist in space, while tones are artificially given by composition and light, thereby expressing the director's intention or conveying an idea. atmosphere in.

(1) Line tone

In the location shots, To Qifeng inherited the film noir's love for steel skeletons, beams, columns, stairs and pipes, and often used the 2.41:1 widescreen format, with vertical lines and the screen itself forming a balance, this aesthetic choice is not only in line with the The perspective is far away, and it expresses the characteristics of the urban space, showing the exciting struggle of the underworld on the screen in an orderly manner.

For To Qifeng, who prefers straight and oblique lines, the lines of the building itself and the division of the intersection are perfect. (figure 1)

Ale and Da D ride in the same car, and when the game is about whether to make a deal or break, the traffic light shows the result to the audience. (figure 2)

At the end of the scene where Ale hunts down the big D's wife, To Qifeng uses natural trees to cut the picture, the lines appear rigid and depressing, the shape of the trees is terrifying, and the overwhelmed monkey behind him is in a hurry. In this picture, Ale and the big D's wife are in deep In the bottomless forest, it looks very small, symbolizing the tragic end of the two. (image 3)

In the interior scenes , there are few lines, and Johnnie To prefers to use the tone.

In the prison, because he couldn't choose someone to talk to, the angry Big D threatened to re-establish a "Xinhe Liansheng". It can be seen that whether it is negotiating with Colleague (Figure 4) or Deng Bo (Figure 5), the big D is in a lower position in space, and when the two are in the same picture with Deng Bo, an oblique layout is formed between them. The right-to-left diagonal split creates a shadow on Big D, suggesting that he is at a disadvantage in this fight.

It is also the layout of Big D's disadvantage. In the end, Ale gets rid of the big D's scene. In the first scene, Ale's position is higher than that of Big D, and his son's position is also higher than that of Big D's wife. It was doomed from the beginning of the play. Big D's tragic end. (Image 6)

In the scene of the high-level election of "Harmony and Liansheng", Deng Bode is highly respected, and twice invited him to tea, placing him at the center of the picture, highlighting his status in the society. (Figure 7)

(2) Black imagery

Black symbolizes death, mystery and terror, giving people a sense of oppression and heaviness. In gangster movies, black is the main color element, which is created by the contrast of light and dark on the one hand, and expressed by color on the other hand.

In the scene where Master Su (played by Zhang Zhaohui), Datou (played by Lin Xue) and others went to Panyu to fetch the dragon head stick, the gloom around the little black house indicates that the place where the power stick is located is about to clash. (Figure 8)

And in the scene where Ale and Big D assassinate the dinosaurs in the bar, in the gloomy space and the black bag, the dinosaurs are sure to die. (Figure 9)

4. The uniqueness of Johnnie To's gangster films

"To Qifeng's gangster films have gradually stepped out of the superficial level of expressing gangster struggles, and have risen to the level of political criticism, aesthetic pursuit, and life philosophies with various themes and meanings, and have entered the depiction of complex human nature. The depth of the story is also explored in modernism.” ——Venice Film Festival judge’s evaluation of To Qifeng

Film scholar Sun Weichuan refers to "black romance" as "to the mainstream culture or official ideology of a specific historical period and a specific country or region, or appear immoral, or appear abnormal, or appear morbid, But it is poetic, legendary or utopian, and often has a psychological or behavioral effect on self or others." In this sense, the little Ma Ge ("The True Color of Heroes"), Xiao Zhuang created by John Woo The romance of images such as (Blood Series) is a kind of black romance, while elements such as fast shots, a lot of guns and ammunition, and doves of peace technically romanticize and aestheticize the scene. Therefore, it is said that John Woo said the black and romantic "the founder of the mountain". And Johnnie To's black romance, although not as good as Liu Weiqiang in terms of box office explosion and less popular than MacDonald's, but his unique narrative techniques and characterization are more artistic.

Regarding narrative, I believe that Du Qifeng's pinnacle work in this regard should be the three-paragraph repetitive narrative of "The Birth of a Word", as well as the light and dark double-line narrative in "Dark Flower", which also obviously affected the later history of fame and shadow. The creation of the Infernal Affairs series (Mai Zhaohui, Liu Weiqiang, Zhuang Wenqiang, etc., 2002, 2003).

In terms of character creation, "Underworld 1" is still used as an example. The film progressed to 10:09, and the main characters and basic characteristics have been clearly explained. Big D is crazy and paranoid, defiant, but negligent in strategy. The camera repeatedly gave him a half-squatting posture, revealing his arrogance and cruelty (Figure 10).

The plane's raw spoonful of powder shows its unyielding and single-minded personality. (Figure 11)

Although Ale also canvassed votes, but he knows the big picture and has a degree of relaxation, not as rogue as Da D. (Figure 12)

In Johnnie To's films, you won't see young and bewildered young men dressed in unconventional fashion and with colorful hair; instead, you will see young and dangerous boys who regard club tasks as just work, but show a childlike smile after their brothers work together to rescue Ashin, who has broken the precepts. A ghost. ("Gun Fire", 1999); I won't see the inspirational cannabis of heroes who were born in poverty but full of pride, eager to make a big difference in the world; but only use two details of spitting blood and foam to outline the underworld characters. The endless sadness behind it. ( "Dark War", "Full Time Killer", 1999, 2001 )

Conclusion:

To Qifeng, like Wong Kar Wai, is a unique existence in the history of Hong Kong film. He inherits the realistic tradition of American gangster movies, and at the same time incorporates the "chivalry" of traditional Chinese martial arts spirit. Together with his [Galaxy Image], he uses the camera as a scalpel, and uses the struggle for fame, bloody violence, and helpless fate in the underworld. It is displayed, all expressing a kind of "black feeling" from the inside to the outside. Different from his predecessor John Woo's romantic gangster films and the contemporary MacDonald's documentary gangster films, he is more calm and mature. Later, Liu Weiqiang learned a lot from him, and he borrowed a lot from To Qifeng's gangster when filming the "Infernal Affairs" series. Filming techniques and narrative techniques. It can be said that John To's films are not only unique in Hong Kong film history, but also have a profound impact on the development of film art.

References:

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[3], Xu He. On To Qifeng's film's breakthrough in Hong Kong's traditional police and bandit films [J]. Film Review, 2009(20):9-11.

[4], Lao Yexin. A Cold Time and Space of Light and Shadow on the Visual Art of To Qifeng's Gangster Films [J]. Journal of Beijing Film Academy, 2008(05):68-73.

[5], Nie Xinru. The concept of genre films and their research methods [J]. Contemporary Cinema, 2010(08): 116-119.

[6], Zhou Yujie. Hong Kong Underworld Film Research [D]. Shandong University, 2010.

[7], Lao Yexin. A Cold Light and Shadow Time and Space on the Image Art of To Qifeng's Gangster Films [J]. Journal of Beijing Film Academy, 2008(05):68-73.

[8], Zhang Xi. The perplexity of "Across the World": A Study of Hong Kong Gangster Films [J]. Film Art, 2003(06): 26-30.

[9], Cui Zheng. Research on the Aesthetic Characteristics of Du Qifeng's Film Noir [D]. Chang'an University, 2017.

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