Recently, Ethan Ruan and have become popular!
has gone from a short video to a hot search on all major platforms. About him and his new movie "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" has become popular all over the Internet.
's word-of-mouth reputation alone has already overwhelmed several movies released during the Spring Festival.
has nearly 350,000 people, and more than 80% of viewers of have given it four stars or above, with a rating of .2.
In terms of box office, some organizations even predict that the total box office in the mainland may be close to 500 million.
You must know that the cost of this movie is less than 10 million, and there is only one familiar Ethan Juan in the cast. With such achievements, it can be called "unbelievable".
This is not the end. As the film is being released in mainland China, mainstream media such as CCTV have also taken the initiative to comment on its excitement.
Even the best actor Nick Cheung said it was so good-looking, "In the past five years, I have not seen a film that I thought was so good-looking."
Some netizens even said excitedly, "I haven't felt that watching a movie in a cinema is such a happy thing for a long time!"
In fact, looking at the plot alone, "The Three Evils" is a powerful gangster movie.
The story borrows the allusion of "Zhou Chu eliminates three evils" in "Shi Shuo Xin Yu". In the film, Chen Guilin, played by Ethan Ruan, was originally a professional killer, nicknamed "Guilin Tsai".
Four years ago, Chen Guilin shot and killed a gang leader in public and then fled. After that, he lived a life of hiding everywhere. Even after his grandmother passed away, he did not dare to show his face.
What is even more unfortunate is that he was told by Chen Guiqing, the only doctor willing to help him, that suffered from advanced lung cancer and did not have much time left.
The series of twists and turns made Chen Guilin shaken in his heart. But when he went to the police station, he realized that although his name and photo were still on the wanted list, everyone had already forgotten about him.
Chen Guilin, who did not want to be forgotten by everyone, decided to find the value of life in a desperate move - as long as he killed the "first and second" brothers, he would be remembered by everyone.
So, a killer who was "suffering from terminal cancer" embarked on a feat of "doing justice for heaven"...
Frankly speaking, "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" is not perfect in the minds of some movie fans, and There are also many small flaws and logical problems, such as Aberdeen's character design is not full, Chen Guilin's pursuit is too smooth, etc.
But aside from these, "The Three Evils" can definitely be regarded as a high-quality film.
Come to think of it, the fighting scenes are very real and the punches are punchy.
From the road to the alley, and then to the rooftop, it is almost a shot to the end, very much in the style of early Hong Kong directors.
During the fight, Chen Guilin, as a desperado, showed ruthlessness, clumsiness and ferocity, which made the look very real.
Secondly, the scale of this film is also relatively large .
Among them, there are two scenes that impressed me deeply:
One is the scene where Aberdeen forces Xiaomei. The lens directly shows the greed and ugliness of human nature .
The second one is Chen Guilin's "public execution" scene of believers in the spiritual cultivation hall. It's bloody and those ignorant people deserve what they deserve.
Compared with the above, what Uncle Fan likes most is Ethan Ethan's "four-level acting" and the detailed metaphors he shows. This movie is definitely Ethan Ethan's "personal show" .
As soon as he appears, he has a sense of story.
wears a wide-fitted suit with shoulder pads and a cropped haircut, revealing his underworld career, which is deep and violent.
The cartoon watch represents his desire for emotion and inner innocence.
In terms of character design, Chen Guilin gives the audience a rather contradictory feeling. is both crazy and ferocious, but also innocent and kind.
In order to play such a role well, Ethan Ruan also contributed his "God-like" acting skills.
The first level, an "outlaw gangster" who is fearless
In this period, Chen Guilin was ruthless and full of ruffianism.
What he showed was the unfettered side of an outlaw who only abides by the moral principles of the world and does not abide by the law. When
first appeared, Ethan Ruan had a highlight, which was to eat and . In the
footage, Chen Guilin first sneaked into the funeral, received a box lunch, and sat down to eat. Next to him sat a golden-haired horse boy, who was vividly talking about the "glory moment" of "Guilin boy".
But he looked relaxed, as if he was listening to other people's stories and his mouth was full of oil.
After eating, he answered another phone call, and then said to Ma Zai, "What Guilin Zai, I have a name, Chen Guilin." Facing the stunned Ma Zai, he smiled slightly.
Then, regardless of the other party's shock and suspicion, he walked directly into the crowd, took out his gun, and calmly and coldly fired several shots at the newly arrived gang boss.
After doing this, he wiped off the fingerprints on the gun skillfully and left calmly.
When he walked to the alley and saw the police, an almost maniacal evil smile appeared on his face, and his attitude of turning around and running away was more like entering a "life and death game", with a sense of "morbidity" and madness all over his body.
Ethan Ethan played a ruthless outlaw maniac with few words.
Especially the expression when strangling someone with a wire in the alley. At that moment, the murderer's madness and inner tension can be felt through the screen.
Ethan Ethan played a ruthless outlaw maniac with few words.
On the second level, he is an "executor" who is looking for the value of existence, and he is also a "savior"
Chen Guilin, who experienced the death of his grandmother and learned that he only had three months to live, was full of unwillingness at this time.
When talking to Chen Guiqing, he shed tears in his left eye first, glanced sideways constantly, put down the cup he picked up in the blink of an eye, and lit a cigarette for himself.
These actions all express Chen Guilin's inner unrest and confusion.
And when he begged Guan Gong and received "guidance" to surrender, he suddenly realized that everyone no longer remembered him.
This look of surprise and fear finally transformed completely at the moment when he saw the wanted poster, and he was about to start the killing operation at the end of his life.
But if he wants to uphold justice for heaven and punish evildoers, he, the "executor", must become even more crazy and vicious.
In order to show Chen Guilin's "all-in-one" attitude, Ethan Ruan had such a scene when he was chasing Aberdeen.
At that time, Chen Guilin had already forced Aberdeen into a broken shed in the wild, and soon the two were engaged in a life-and-death fight in this dark space.
Aberdeen stabbed Chen Guilin with a broken sickle blade. In a critical situation, Chen Guilin bit off Aberdeen's lip!
When Hong Kong Aberdeen fell to the ground in fear, Chen Guilin slowly wiped his mouth and then slowly approached him.
It is worth mentioning that this "mouth biting" action was proposed by Ethan Ruan. He said:
It is this kind of understanding of the inner world of the character that makes him appear more vicious when acting as the "executor" .
Of course, during this period, Chen Guilin had a lot of inner changes. Compared to before, he had an extra "mission of atonement" in his heart.
For example, after killing Aberdeen, Chen Guilin drove Xiaomei to kill the two remaining brothers in Aberdeen. This was his "killing to save others", and he did not want Xiaomei to fall into another "Aberdeen" again. "The clutches of.
When sending it to the beach, Chen Guilin dragged his tired body and left the car with Xiaomei.
There are two details here. One is to take the piggy watch in the car, and the other is that he personally fastens the seat belt for Xiaomei.
This shows that he will continue to carry out the anti-pesticide plan, and by taking off the handcuffs and fastening the seat belt of Xiao Mei, he is breaking Xiao Mei's "power and authority" over Aberdeen and truly returning freedom and safety. Gave it to her.
This is not a traditional "hero saving beauty", but more like a kind of self-salvation. He has completed the first part of the evil elimination plan, and Xiaomei is more like another "Chen Guilin".
Therefore, the way Chen Guilin looked at Xiaomei when he was leaving was a little softer and even more envious than before, because deep down in Chen Guilin's heart, he also longed to meet a "savior".
During this period, Ethan Juan had a good grasp of the changes in Chen Guilin's inner level, and he performed the transformation of a character in a silent and unexpected way.
The third level is that he is a "confessor"
If "Underworld Killer" is a martial arts drama, "Confession" is a real literary drama. Ethan Ruan's octopus-like elasticity is even more surprising and extremely Ornamental. When
was looking for Lin Luhe, he came to the spiritual cultivation hall, where he was moved by "hypocrisy".
I would like to mention here that director Huang Jingfu also used some Buddhist principles when setting up the characters in order to increase the depth of the characters.
For example, the snake tattoo in Aberdeen is one of the manifestations of the "three poisons of Buddhism". Being prone to anger is one of the symptoms.
Chen Guilin's pink pig watch means "idiot", which means ignorance.
Therefore, Ethan Ethan only needs to interpret the image of a "sinner who longs to be saved".
Therefore, the scene where Chen Guilin confesses is very tense. The method used by Ethan Ruan is to present it with "crying" and "laughing".
Here are two scenes:
First, Chen Guilin knelt in the center of the hall. After being whipped, he cried bitterly and shouted "I am a sinner."
Secondly, on the second day, he looked at the whip marks on his back in the mirror and chuckled. After putting on the clothes of the spiritual retreat hall, he looked in the mirror again and even tidied them up with his hands. A lot of hair had been cut off several times, and his smile suddenly widened.
Between crying and laughing, Chen Guilin expected that all the bad things in the past would be written off for him.
Ethan Juan portrays Chen Guilin who has been away from the crowd for too long and needs a sense of belonging. He understands this very clearly.
The fourth level, he still wants to go back to the pure boy
When Chen Guilin discovered that the so-called "Venerable" and the spiritual cultivation hall were both scams, he decided to end everything with killing and find his pure self. There are two scenes in
, and it can be seen that Ethan Ruan handles such emotional transitions very well.
One is to dig Lin Luhe’s grave.
After experiencing being buried alive by other believers, he climbed out, but he did not choose revenge immediately, but went to dig the "Lin Luhe's grave" mentioned by respect.
However, this is just an empty tomb, with only a photo of "Yang Shuzhen mother and son" written on it and a bunch of hair.
After understanding everything, Chen Guilin's expression changed from disbelief to wild laughter. This expression contained ridicule and bitterness, and at the same time, it made him more determined to "eliminate harm."
Second, after killing Lin Luhe, a wave of "returning guns" came to counterattack.
In fact, after killing Lin Luhe, he had already completed the initial "pest elimination mission."
However, when he went downstairs with his bag on his back, singing started to sound again in the spiritual training hall, which made him feel disgusted.
In Chen Guilin's view, this seemingly holy place is full of lies and filth.
So, he turned around and came back, but compared to the previous killings, he no longer acted arrogantly and smiled evilly this time. Instead,
smiled and gave them a chance to choose, because in his heart, this time it was a "chivalrous act."
He first put down his backpack, took out the pistol in his waist bag, and began to count down. At the same time, he loaded the magazines one by one.
and shot at those obsessed believers with a smile on his face, his mood was stable, and he would even sit down and take a rest when he was tired.
There is a very interesting plot here, that is, when he was killing believers, his gun jammed or he was out of ammunition, so he gave the opponent another chance to choose.
This design makes the people present no longer innocent. All those who were shot were deeply obsessed.
But can Chen Guilin really find his former self?
cannot!
There are two metaphors in the film, . One is his multiple escape actions compared to . As a gang member, he was free and easy, and there was no need to care about these; but after becoming a fugitive, he always habitually Deliberately let go of one foot.
The second is, the smiles facing the camera at the beginning and end of the film. The former is a true and uninhibited temperament, while the latter is a mixture of relaxation and bitter understanding of life and death.
After experiencing escape and pursuit, although Chen Guilin is still sincere, the suffering and sin of the world have eroded him.
He has found the so-called "value of existence" and reconciled with himself, but how can he return to the original boy who has seen the world as it is?
In fact, Ethan Ethan’s highlights are everywhere in the film.
But no matter how you look at it, Ethan Ethan's performance is really good.
This kind of acting requires the actor to recognize the "justice" understood by the character deep in his heart. This kind of emotional recognition is really not easy to perform well.
In the interview, Ethan Ruan revealed that he had wanted to give up during the filming.
felt a lot of pressure because he was too involved, but judging from the current results, Ethan Ruan's efforts are undoubtedly worth it.
He has opened another door, and his acting career should be smooth in the future.
(Movie Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Department: An An)
