From the time when I started watching Hong Kong police films or gangster films, I think Hong Kong films have developed in three stages.
One is the classical period, that is, the era of Chow Yun-fat and Wu Yusen, in the 1980s. In the underworld of this era, the boss dresses like a tycoon. Even in sunny places in summer, he always likes to wear windbreakers and scarves, and hula hula when he walks with the wind; Xiao Luo wears like office clerks, all in all. Suits and leather shoes, big black suits with tie, small gray suits without tie. There are always many guns in the underworld, and they are better than police firepower guns. The last is the small pistol. The AKs are all used by mainland Chinese. The high-level underworld generally use Israeli Uzi or M16, as well as shotguns and bazookas. The police are usually a small revolver with a small size of 38. It is remarkable that the Flying Tigers use MP5. In the classical era, both the police and the underworld were very arrogant, very arrogant, and the fires were splattered and the bullets rained. No one had to worry that the bullets in the magazine would play, even if the guns were released. The underworld is always very high-end and tasteful. Business talks are always in high-end restaurants. The bosses live in luxury villas and drive yachts. Everyone treats themselves like nobles.
The second era is the postmodern era, that is, the era of the young and Dangerous. The history reached the mid to late 1990s. Postmodern underworlds generally don’t live in luxurious mansions. Everyone lives in ordinary residential buildings, which are cramped and cramped. They drive vans and Ferraris. They don’t do arms business anymore, they mainly operate nightclubs and other entertainment venues. . No one can afford a gun when the young and Dangerous are fighting. Everyone uses machete, and the machete is not specially made, it is the stuff of street vendors; many people can't even buy a machete, so they have to use steel pipes. By the way, the dressing styles of the young and Dangerous boys have also changed. They are not like office clerks anymore. They are sporty, punk and hippie, and have a hip-hop feel like Japan, Japan, and Korea. The bosses finally knew that it was hot, and they no longer wear windbreakers and scarves, and wear a set of simple casual suits. The places where triads talk about business are mostly restaurants similar to Beijing and Chengdu snacks, eating hot pot and drinking milk tea.
The third era is a return to classics. Returning to the classical era, the underworld has begun to become more upscale. The most typical representatives are the last movie of Young and Dangerous and Infernal Affairs and other movies. Everyone began to wear black suits again, and talked about underworld business like a company's mergers and acquisitions. Well-dressed means that you have money, so everyone starts to use guns again. It is not uncommon to not have pistols in suits.
I started watching Hong Kong-made police and criminal films in junior high school. Although the Hong Kong underworld films at that time had entered the post-modern era of young and Dangerous, what we love most is the classical era Xiao Ma. Heroic, loyal, handsome, and unrestrained, these are what we yearn for. After going to high school, especially after going to college, I was tired of the bullets, and I always felt that it was too fake. Who can always get so many guns, the most common one in life is a machete. Who has such good kung fu and marksmanship, the street gangsters we meet in our lives are at best a bit harder, and they are actually very clumsy when fighting. Therefore, the young and Dangerous way of fighting without any moves, true, simple, and close to the people at the bottom, immediately attracted us. When I was about to graduate from university, Infernal Affairs appeared. The gangster film of Infernal Affairs attracted us again. It was no longer his fight, but his plot, his plot step by step.
Like Infernal Affairs, it also means that we are finally mature.
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