Once upon a time, action movies featuring one versus ten or even one versus a hundred are vividly in my mind.
Jackie Chan made the bad guys suffer a lot in "Brothers of the Dragon and Tigers".
In the "Ip Man" series, Donnie Yen fought from domestic to foreign countries, and finally one person fought a hundred.
Jet Li challenged various martial arts masters in "Fearless", his movements were smooth and smooth, and it was so good.
Now, Chen Guokun comes to with his latest work "Thugs in Suits". This time, without further ado, let's get straight to the action. It is certain that this will be the first fashion action movie in 2024.
So, what are the box office data, popularity, and even the quality of the film?
Please see Brother Fei’s analysis below.
1. Box office.
Recently, mainland theaters have been very deserted.
So, I started to pay attention to major online movies, and among them, two new movies caught my attention.
The first film is "Defiant 2" starring Xie Miao and Yang En. After careful consideration, the film crew decided to abandon theaters and directly release it online on streaming media platforms. It must be said that the film crew's assessment of the situation is worth learning from.
Another one is "Thugs in Suits" which has just started filming.
html On January 19, the box office rankings of mainland online movies were released. The top three of were "Thugs in Suits", "Anti-Corruption Storm: Crypto Crisis" and "Infinite Poison Ticket".
The suspense film "The Strange Thing" starring Yu Shaoqun and Liu Xiaoqing ranked fifth. The cumulative box office receipts in the three days after its launch were only 599,000, making it impossible to recover the production costs.
The real-life martial arts film "The Bad Handsome Man Who Draws Jianghu" adapted from the well-known animation "Hua Jianghu" ranked fourth. It was released for nine days and received 5.8 million box office, exceeding the task. It is worth mentioning that the film starred Chen Guokun and Mao Xiaohui.
Chen Long, the supporting actor who shined in "Flowers", also has his own online movie masterpiece. The runner-up was the film "Wu Jian Poison Ticket" starring Chen Long. The creator of
also invited famous Hong Kong actors Lui Leung-wai and Eric Tsang to support him. The film's box office has reached 5.37 million within seven days of its release, winning the third place.
The excellent box office performance may be closely related to "Flowers". Some netizens left a message on Douban: "Tao Tao, is that you?"
The second-ranked Hong Kong film "Anti-Corruption Storm: Crypto Crisis" has started filming. I got 2.71 million in four days, which can only be said to be quite satisfactory. You must know that this is the continuation IP of "Anti-Corruption Storm".
's previous theatrical film "Anti-Corruption Storm" hired famous Hong Kong actors, such as Louis Koo, Julian Cheung, Raymond Lam and other big names. Now after the completion of the fifth film, he directly took the route of Wang Jing, and the leading actor became a famous actor. The unknown Wu Zhuoxi. Of course, the box office feedback of
will not be that strong.
Just like Andy Lau's New Year's Day "Stealth" versus "Goldfinger", Chen Guokun also staged his own confrontation this time. There are two movies on the list, both starring Chen Guokun.
won the championship with Chen Guokkun's new film "Thugs in Suits".
The film's statistics are very impressive. It premiered on Thursday, January 18 and earned 782,000. It reversed the decline the next day on Friday and earned another 1.206 million. html won the box office with 1.98 million in 22 days.
This is still a weekday box office. I believe it will be a big hit this Saturday and Sunday, and it will continue to dominate the box office rankings in the next period, at least until the release of "Defiant 2" on New Year's Day. Its world.
2. Word of mouth.
"Thugs in Suits" is an online movie adapted by young director Cheng Siyi based on Huang Mengmeng's script. Chen Guokun serves as the first male lead, and stars such as Muqi Miya, Shi Yanneng and Luo Dahua assist in the starring roles.
tells a revenge story of Zhou Ke, the "suited thug" played by Chen Guokun.
Like "Manslaughter" and "Rescuing a Suspect", this is an imaginary country, but judging from the culture in the film, it should be similar to Thailand.
In order to save his good brother Bano, Zhou Ke broke into the dark den alone and almost wiped out all of them in one fell swoop. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating local laws and regulations.
Fast forward many years, after being released from prison, Zhou Ke changed his name to Li Fei, dressed up as a clown, and made a living in the market. What he had to do every day was to accompany a little girl after school.
As everyone knows, the peaceful days were broken by the little girl's teddy bear, and Zhou Ke had to prove his identity again...
"Thugs in Suits" and Keanu Reeves' "John Wick" have many common features. The first one is a revenge movie, and the second one has a lot of gun fighting scenes. If you can fight, there is no nonsense. Fighting scenes account for 80%.
Also, the two twists at the end instantly improve the quality of the film. In general, the term "suited thug" does not specifically refer to bad guys. In the film, he shows a person who has returned from a lost path and wants to return to normal. man of life.
While watching the movie, you will definitely think of the Hollywood movie "Joker" and the classic film "This Killer Is Not So Cold". Especially in the last scene, when the little girl recognized his identity, you were really touched.
Therefore, based on the film's subject matter, plot, action design, and touching people's hearts, Brother Fei gave it three stars, reaching the passing mark of 6.0 points. It is not easy for online movies to achieve such a high degree of completion.
Speaking of shortcomings, there are still some. For example, Chen Guokun's suit thug is not reflected, but his clown costume is memorable.
At first, he was a little confused when he went to accompany the little girl, but in the end, it was actually a reversal included in it. This aspect was not fully done and it was very stiff.
Furthermore, the soundtrack is too poor, with percussion and heavy metal filling the entire film, covering up the onomatopoeia of the martial arts action. In this regard, if we hire the team from Donnie Yen's "Ip Man" or "The Defiant One", they will be able to achieve the ultimate goal. .
3. Zhang Jin and Chen Guokun.
Speaking of thugs in suits, before this movie, they usually referred to a certain action star. I believe everyone is familiar with him. He is Zhang Jin.
Yes, in 2015, an action film "Slaying the Wolf 2" by Hong Kong director Cheng Po-sui was released.
The film stars Wu Jing and Tony Jaa. Before "Wolf Warrior 2" became a big hit, Wu Jing was still looking for some roles in Hong Kong movies.
This film did not make Wu Jing famous, but instead made the third male lead Zhang Jin popular, and gave birth to the term "suited thug".
Dressed in a suit and tie, he beat everyone down. No matter whether he is handsome or not, he must look stylish. Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau had similar roles before, but none of them made movie fans go crazy like Zhang Jin.
In "Slaying the Wolf 2", Zhang Jin plays the role of warden Gao Jin. He wears suits and ties and uses various gentlemanly behaviors to cover up his despicable deeds. The final showdown with Wu Jing becomes the biggest attraction.
The action scenes are powerful and completed in one go. Even though he is losing ground and being seriously injured, his hairstyle and aura must be the first priority, especially his suit should not be messy.
Since then, "suited thug" has become synonymous with Zhang Jin, and everyone knows that suited thug is Zhang Jin.
Now, the movie "Thugs in Suits" did not invite Zhang Jin to star, but invited another action star of his generation, Chen Guokun, and the movie's reputation is not bad.
There is no doubt that Zhang Jin was intercepted by Chen Guokun.
Speaking of Chen Guokun, everyone is familiar with it. Over the years, most of the screen images created by Chen Guokun are inseparable from Bruce Lee.
In 2001, Chen Guokkun became well-known after playing a supporting role in Stephen Chow's movie "Shaolin Soccer". Later, he starred as the boss of the Ax Gang in "Kung Fu". There was a scene where he danced a demonic dance with an ax, which was so handsome.
His most powerful role was in the 2008 CCTV biographical drama "The Legend of Bruce Lee", in which he played Bruce Lee. From then on, he was inseparable from Bruce Lee.
Whether it is character image or external temperament, he is highly matched with Bruce Lee. More importantly, he is also a martial arts practitioner. This is a role tailor-made for him.
Later, Chen Guokkun played Bruce Lee in Donnie Yen's movies "Ip Man 3" and "Ip Man 4". His role was relatively small, but his role was relatively important. In the end, he has never been able to escape Bruce Lee's shadow.
But in terms of movies, there are very few films that ask him to be the leading actor. This time "Thugs in Suits" gives him the opportunity to show off his acting skills and action scenes. Of course he will hit the mark.
In addition, this film can separate him from Bruce Lee. If he wants to become an independent individual, he must have his own masterpiece.
Zhang Jin is better than Chen Guokun in terms of resources. After all, Ip Man's side story has also released an "Ip Man Side Story: Zhang Tianzhi". The film crew is preparing to create an IP, and the second part has also been successfully approved.
If Chen Guokun's "Thugs in Suits" is successful, he personally has the ability to base himself on action movies. If conditions permit, it would not be a bad idea to create an IP for Chen Guokun.
For example, it is possible for "Suits" to be made into a series or a prequel.
4. Ending.
Nowadays, the lack of action movies has reached the verge of salvation. The older generation of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Sammo Hung are getting older. Action movies require high-intensity physical training. As they get older, their completion level is no longer what it used to be.
Donnie Yen, the boss of fashion action films, is already in his 60s. How many more years can we expect them to continue?
Wu Jing, who is a slightly younger generation, has begun to make commercial blockbusters, and most of them are theme-themed, simple action movies. I am afraid that Wu Jing has more than enough to do.
The younger one is Xie Miao, but his journey to theaters is extremely difficult. Before he is completely ready, Xie Miao does not dare to take action easily. His next theater action film will be Andy Lau. and Nicholas Tse's "Rage Spreads."
He plays a small role in it.
Zhang Jin and Chen Guokun, who were at the same time as Wu Jing, currently have no box office appeal, and no one dares to hire them to be the leading actors in commercial blockbusters, for fear that one mistake will ruin their investment and make them lose money.
We all hope that Zhang Jin and Chen Guokun can stir up the mainstay of Chinese kung fu movies, martial arts movies, and fashion action movies, and make a good inheritance of Chinese martial arts. Relying on Ma Baoguo is simply a fantasy.
In time, I will be very happy to see your masterpiece in theaters!
What is your opinion on Chen Guokkun's "Thugs in Suits"?
