In fact, the film "Chasing the Dragon" directed by Wang Jing is really beyond my expectations - it can be said to be a surprise. Popping candies exploded in ice cream.
In recent years, I have been accustomed to watching Wang Jing's self-defeating bad films, and suddenly there is a sudden feeling that "actually Wang Jing can also make good works".
The whole film has a strong retro style, full of old-fashioned Hong Kong feelings. The use of black and white rough textured pictures, as well as the warm yellow tones, coupled with old-school English rhythms, such as The Ghetto, is like flipping through a photo album of 1960s Hong Kong.
Impressed, there is a long shot that takes one shot to the end. The angle of view is constantly switching between the back of Lai Hao patrolling the Kowloon Walled City and the winding and complex interior of the entire Walled City. From buildings to street corners, no matter where it is, it is thick. Hong Kong style.
In addition to the feeling of being in HK in the 1960s, there is also a kind of romanticism belonging to the rivers and lakes. It seems that the next second you can hear the gangsters scolding your mother, or the mother shouting in the aroma of roast goose. , "Quickly turn over to eat, dead old boy." Lai Hao's Cantonese with a strong Chaoshan accent is also very accented.
The most memorable sentence in the film is "Life and death are destiny, wealth is in heaven."
Some things are always implicated. In the past, Ah Hao lost a shoe in a group fight, and he became a lame foot in the future; the lard boy installed a steel plate for Lai Luo, and the bullet happened to be shot into the chest in the future.
No one can say what kind of destiny depends on life and death, and what kind of secrets are involved in wealth.
With you here, the enemy will break through at night, and the angry sea will also run. When he entered the arena, he vowed to be a hero of that era.
Sometimes in a trance, brothers and sisters have countless money; when they look back, there is nothing behind them.
In that dark age, how could you survive without being a hero, in the beginning, it was just a thought of "meal for a living". Rich or poor, life or death are just a predestined arrangement, and there is no need to force it.
Lame Hao has become the leading eldest brother. He is considered to be rich and powerful, but what if he has reached this point? All the brothers who had shown each other with sincerity lost their lives because of this difficult and dangerous road. They got cancer and got out of prison. Facing the surging river, it was already a matter of right and wrong.
Old Hong Kong-style rivers and lakes and grand narratives, the small characters are vivid and moving, the lame man and Lei Luo tie the golden orchid to each other, escape from the Kowloon Village, the Golden Triangle monopoly on drugs, ICAC's anti-corruption, and the street siege and suppression of the British, all have ups and downs.
At that time, Hong Kong was a British colony, with a chaotic society, corrupt systems and a dark structure.
It is a pity that the film focuses the controversy on the national contradiction with the British colonists, instead of focusing on the order of collusion between officials and bandits, and reproduces the corruption of black eating black and the operation of Lai Luo and Lai Hao on the black and white. .
Some people joked that this is a nationalist gangster film created by Wang Jing himself. The gangster element is wonderful, and the fight with the British is also very outrageous. It is a pity that the so-called sympathy between the two heroes is not fully manifested.
In general,
Chasing the dragon is like a cup of lemon tea condensed from the old Hong Kong era.
Hearty and mellow, with a bit of astringency at the end.
Not necessarily everyone's cup of tea,
But it must be a strong Hong Kong flavor.
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