In the past year, Aaron Kwok received a nickname from netizens - "the most unfavorable king" among the four kings.
What is the "most back"?
has the halo of being the best actor in the Hong Kong Film Awards and cherishes the desire to revive Hong Kong movies. The news is getting bigger and bigger, but the endings are more and more surprising.
Last year, in February, he starred in the gangster blockbuster "The Wind Rises Again", which caused a storm.
Written and directed by Weng Ziguang, it is a top-notch production that brings together three major movie stars, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung, and Xu Guanwen. From the cast to the service, everything is very sophisticated.
was helplessly limited by Weng Ziguang's overly freehand script and bland narrative, which left the audience confused and drowsy, leading to a total box office collapse, with only 49.04 million collected in the end.
Less than a month later, Aaron Kwok's new work "Disconnected" made its grand debut.
takes online financial crime as its theme, and its visual look and feel is very similar to "Tron: Legacy".
But the core of the story is still the same as Hong Kong-style police and gangster movies, and the audience has long been tired of it. The box office performance of
was slightly better than that of "When the Wind Rises Again", with a revenue of 64.88 million. After
, the super Hong Kong movie blockbuster "Anti-Drug 3: At the End of the World" starring Aaron Kwok was released.
Written and directed by Qiu Litao, it also stars Liu Qingyun and Louis Koo, and the supporting roles are all familiar faces such as Yang Caiyu, Luo Jialiang, and Tse Junhao.
However, its reputation continues to decline, and its Douban score is fixed at 5.5 points.
The only good thing is that the box office is better than the previous two films, with 284 million.
After three consecutive setbacks, the pressure of public opinion fell entirely on Aaron Kwok.
Some people say that he doesn't know how to pick movies, and all he shoots are films that are destined to be unpopular.
Some people question his acting skills, saying that he has a false reputation as an actor and is absent-minded when acting, just waiting to clock out and get off work.
What’s even more tragic is that a video account dug up a video of him dancing on the show, and edited it together with the dancing video of his youth, mocking the former Asian Dance King, who is now too old to dance, "It seems like his battery is about to run out." Toy".
Seeing that Andy Lau is gaining momentum, he is so popular that he has to be relied on to carry the Spring Festival show.
Aaron Kwok, who has suffered repeated setbacks, urgently needs to come up with a convincing work.
Not to mention recovering lost ground, but the decline must be stopped. While
was talking, Guo Tianwang's "big test" was here -
"Temporary Robbery".
With almost no rivals in the same category, the film was released for 4 days and earned 90 million at the box office.
But we won’t look at the box office today, only the quality of the movie.
01. There are three main highlights of "Temporary Heist"
"Temporary Robbery" is a small-scale movie with a unique style. There are three outstanding points of interest.
One is "King Guo pretending to be ugly".
is the one with the "lowest altitude" among the four heavenly kings.
Aaron Kwok has been in the entertainment industry for more than 40 years. In addition to his singing skills, dancing skills, hard work and acting skills, the foundation of his life is his superb appearance. During the peak period of
, even big names such as Tony Leung Ka Fai, Andy Lau, Ekin Cheng, and Jimmy Lin all had his hair style and imitated his image.
Since focusing on movies, Aaron Kwok has been deliberately changing his image as he grows older.
He cut the iconic "Aaron Kwok head" to show a more cheerful image;
tried different types of movies, created different characters, and polished his acting skills in performances.
Over the years, Aaron Kwok has been deliberately "acting ugly".
For example, in "Treading Blood to Seek Plum Blossoms", he plays the slovenly and unkempt police officer Zang Sir. His obsession with investigating the case, his persistence in revealing the truth of the case, and his compassion for the victims and their families are all reflected in the unscrupulous Well expressed in body language that is not revealing.
In "Wushuang", Aaron Kwok plays Li Wen, the cunning leader of the counterfeit banknote organization.
Underneath the wretched image, there is a lawless, daring and crazy heart hidden.
's movie script is solid and firmly grasps the suspense style. The truth is not revealed until the end, which makes Li Wen the villain's image very full. He is one of the more successful characters created by Aaron Kwok.
came to "Temporary Robbery", Aaron Kwok is even more "going to death" this time.
He equipped himself with a pair of buck teeth and a pair of "cauliflower ears", strong muscles, and a tan circle, giving him a very capable image.
speaks with pursed lips and a Vietnamese accent, which looks like Rami Malek in "Bohemian Rhapsody".
In the trailer and short video released before the film was released, this buck-toothed image is really eye-catching.
plus funny actions and lines such as "I invite you to rob, thank you very much", "We are gangsters, not killers", "You rob me, I rob you, the number comes first" Frequent brainwashing has also attracted the attention of many netizens.
The second is a black comedy. The movie
takes the route of a black comedy crime film that is rare among Hong Kong films.
According to the definition of producer Er Dongsheng: "This is an absurd crime Hong Kong film that is not too serious."
focuses on "fresh", "special" and "interlocking", with a dark humor and humanity. topic of discussion.
The person who plays this style best is undoubtedly the British director Guy Ritchie.
His masterpieces "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Kidnapping" both show the seriousness and self-defeating of the gangsters, as well as multi-line narratives and unexpected coincidences, and are still talked about by movie fans to this day. road.
Ning Hao also made his famous film "Crazy Stone" because he imitated his style.
"Temporary Robbery" also adopts a multi-line narrative mode.
In the film, Mui Lantian (played by Aaron Kwok), a gangster from Vietnam, is cruel and decisive.
However, his teammates put a bag of stolen money obtained during the robbery into the trunk of the taxi belonging to the taxi driver A'Zang (played by Lin Jiadong).
thus became involved with A Zang and Murong Hui (played by Ren Xianqi).
Murong Hui runs a nursing home, but owes a huge loan due to poor management. He is planning to buy a gun from the underworld first, and then use the gun to rob a bank.
Under some circumstances, Mei Lantian, A Zang and Murong Hui formed a grass-roots team.
In line with the rules of the world of "I rob you, you rob me", he plans to rob the money of the underworld Mr. Xi (played by David Jiang).
At the same time, female police detective Jiang Jie (played by Zhang Keyi) has already locked the three people;
Thief Anan (played by Jiang Zhuowen) and his girlfriend Bingbing (played by Wang Songyin) are planning to escape;
Underworld profiteer Fei Cha (played by Lin Xue) He was jailed for selling guns and fake passports.
The story lines of these big and small characters are connected in series to form a rather attractive gangster ukiyo-e.
The third one is the shaping of the abjection of the bottom class.
Mei Lantian, A Ting and Murong Fai represent the old men in Hong Kong who are in deep mid-life crisis.
Mei Lantian, who speaks Vietnamese and is rustic, is a retired wrestler who has a great record but cannot make any money. In order to realize his son Xigua's wish to make money and buy a house, he takes risks.
However, in fact, Xigua had already died in a lightning accident, and Mei Lantian's persistence was just a morbid obsession.
Ah Zang is a typical "hep-controller".
The couple and their mother lived in a public house of less than 40 square meters, and the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was very tense.
Because his wife is expecting a child, the original small house cannot accommodate so many people. In order to buy a new house, the taxi driver is very upset.
Murong Hui’s wife died young and he and his daughter depended on each other.
originally had no family to worry about, but he was heavily in debt because the nursing home he ran could not make ends meet.
When Murong Hui shouted the sentence "You are old and you don't have 20,000 yuan" , the theme of the movie emerged.
Under the shell of comedy, it is a human story that explores "loss" and "pursuit".
02. Who messed up this "S-level script"? Comparing "The Strange Case of Three Wolves", it is clear that
"King Guo pretending to be ugly" is a gimmick, black comedy is the style of the film, and exploring mid-life crisis and human nature is the theme.
The story of the movie has a gimmick, the actors' acting skills are not bad, and the script is well-written.
It stands to reason that as long as you tell a good story, the possibility of becoming a hit is extremely high.
But judging from audience reviews, critical voices still dominate.
The biggest problem lies with director Mak Qi-Kuang.
Looking at director Mak Kai-kwong's resume, he debuted in the 1990s and worked as an assistant director under famous directors such as Tsui Hark, Wang Jing, Chen Musheng, Er Dongsheng, and Johnnie To.
It was not until 2000 that Mai Qiguang directed his directorial debut "Ghosts Play with You". The only work that
has scored more than 7 points in his career so far is 2007's "If Time Turns Back".
Let’s not talk about experience, let’s go back to the movie “The Temporary Heist”.
On the whole, it can only be considered a "half-good film".
The combination of the tough gangster Mei Lantian and the two "trash" A-Zang and Murong Hui is very entertaining; the multi-line narrative is also very innovative; and the gunfight scenes are also well shot.
But in the second half of the movie, I couldn’t take it anymore.
We all know that due to the strict censorship in the Mainland, as a crime-themed movie, the beginning and middle can be very "wild", but at the end it must be contained and "harmonious" enough, and it is best to have enough educational significance. .
Our mainland movies already have a set of methods to deal with them.
Hong Kong crime movies, but I have never been able to master the formula.
In order to give the movie a "Hong Kong flavor", almost all police and gangster movies have a lot of fun at the beginning, and the process is smooth and beautiful, but at the end, they start to "show their timidity".
I don’t know how to tell the story, how to arrange the endings of the characters, and how to fill the holes dug ahead.
's laziest way to deal with it is to have all the characters, big or small, good or evil, "arrange" them together through various coincidences, and finally end up with a chaotic gun battle, allowing the "bad guys" to take advantage of the situation and the "good guys" to live. Come down and have the last laugh.
Disappointingly, the ending of "Provisional Heist" is also the same.
The three protagonists who were finally created at the beginning of the movie.
The violent but principled gangster Mei Lantian, the timid and mercenary Aizang, and the kind and loyal Murong Hui are all vivid and friendly.
ended up being labeled as "good" and "evil" like "archive".
deserved to die and deserved to be punished, leaving the audience unable to vent their pent-up breath.
We can also learn from the excellent old Hong Kong films of the past.
For comparison, let’s take a “Strange Case” film with a score of 7.3 on Douban, the 1989 “The Strange Case of the Three Wolves” by McDonald and Huang Tailai.
Why did you choose this movie? Because "The Strange Case of the Three Wolves" and "The Impromptu Heist" have many similarities.
For example, the protagonists are also three people; it also has a comedy tone; it is also a tragic story about a middle-aged man facing an existential crisis, taking risks for the sake of life, and finally embarking on a path of no return.
In the early stage of the movie, the film focused on portraying the "Three Wolves" makeup artist Ma Ercan, driving instructor Deng Zijing and business waiter Li Huai, defining their characters as ordinary people who are harmless to humans and animals, timid and afraid of getting into trouble, so as to arouse the goodwill of the audience.
Then the "Three Wolves" began to encounter various misfortunes in life, which aroused the "hatred of the rich" mentality. They made bold "attempts" again and again, step by step towards the road of crime.
The ending of the movie is very consistent with our "moral values" and can pass the review even now.
The "Three Wolves" were eventually brought to justice and sent to the gallows one by one.
The most sharp thing is that the movie presents the entire process of the three people from "waiting for death" to being hanged in a straightforward way, which shocked the audience.
Therefore, "The Strange Case of the Three Wolves" is a thought-provoking theme wrapped in a crime comedy shell.
Compared with "The Temporary Heist", it is a step above in character creation, the story is told equally smoothly, and the ending goes straight to the theme of human nature, which makes people feel unfinished.
As a 2024 movie, "Provisional Heist" is not as good as the old Hong Kong movies in the late 1980s, and the regression of Hong Kong movies is evident.
03. This time, I really have to cry out for Aaron Kwok.
Currently, "Provisional Robbery" has a box office of more than 90 million in four days of release.
Although the film schedule is very high, the average daily box office is not as good as "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" which has been released for almost a month. ", the stamina is also very weak.
media predicts that its box office will eventually not exceed 200 million.
Aaron Kwok did not hesitate to "act ugly", but what he was waiting for was a work like this, which made Brother Pi feel regretful.
I used to say that Hong Kong movies were "not good anymore". There were only a few actors who came and went, the routines were old, and they didn't know how to adapt, which made people uninterested.
But in recent years, we have also seen the active attempts and changes of Hong Kong filmmakers.
For example, "Tomorrow's Day" is a science fiction film, "The Big Bad" is a legal film, and "Corridor of Justice" is a serious suspense film, all with a carefully crafted texture.
Let’s talk about “Temporary Heist”. The starting point itself is very low. It is a low-cost black comedy.
The actors are all veteran actors. In addition to the three best actors, Lu Haipeng, Lin Xue, Wang Minde, and Bao Qijing are all responsible for comedy.
The multi-line narrative structure is not common in Hong Kong films, and the fatalistic ending is a "homage" to Galaxy Film.
But in the end, I couldn't hold it back, which exposed the shortcomings of the screenwriter and director.
There is another embarrassing problem, that is, there are only a few movie stars who can carry the "big banner", and these Hong Kong stars are not young anymore.
Aaron Kwok, Lin Jiadong, and Ren Xianqi in this film are all born in the 60s. The youngest Lin Jiadong is already 57 years old.
In the film, Jiang Zhuowen, who plays the little thief Anan, and young actors such as Zeng Bitt, Chen Yishen, and Liang Zhongheng, who play the garage boy, also have remarkable acting skills.
What’s puzzling is why these actors born in the 80s and 90s don’t get more opportunities to perform?
You must know that when the Four Heavenly Kings became popular, they were all young men in their early 20s!
We all say that we should "emancipate our minds and seek truth from facts." This "eight-character mantra" is also applicable to Hong Kong movies.
Since we are "seeking change", we must change boldly and don't always play the trick of "putting new wine in old bottles".
The first step is to let these "overage" movie stars take a back seat and give young people more opportunities.
Not only must there be "gimmicks" to attract the audience, but it must also have "content" to retain the audience with good stories.
We need to work hard on polishing the script. We should dig out those old Hong Kong films from the 1980s and 1990s and study them carefully. While absorbing the "Hong Kong flavor", we should also learn how to tell good stories.
Only by doing this can Hong Kong films not reach a dead end, and future Hong Kong films can give people hope for revival.
Regardless of the final box office performance of "Provisional Heist", Aaron Kwok did not lose this time.
's ability to create such a distinctive character is a good start for 2024.
Andy Lau has fully integrated into the mainland market, which actually pointed the way for Aaron Kwok.
may leave for a while and try to star in some mainland movies in order to open up the situation and get out of the current predicament.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Hot-Blooded Danxin
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