This may be the biggest gamble Tony Leung has made since entering the industry.
At the beginning of 2021, his wife Carina Lau handed him a new script and said, "This director really wants to hire you." After reading all 30 pages of
, Tony Leung felt that the story was pretty good, but he couldn't say how specific it was.
In order to learn more about the director, Tony Leung and his wife went to the King's Palace to watch the director's last work, " Romantic Demise History " in the cinema.
After the two-hour film screening, Tony Leung was already deeply involved.
In his words, "It's rare to see such exquisite and personal style in Chinese movies. I also want to have a movie like this."
So after returning home, he quickly dialed the director's phone number. This cooperation was immediately finalized.
Tony Leung has worked with famous directors like Wong Kar-Wai, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Ang Lee in the past.
But this director named Cheng Er has only made three feature films before, and the cumulative box office is only a measly 150 million.
Just because of one movie, he fell in love with an unknown director with a dismal resume. Tony Leung's decision was indeed bold.
Now we know that this movie is called "无名" and it earned 1 billion in box office after its release.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai also relied on his discerning eye to recognize people and successfully won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor. He became the first three-time Best Actor in history and firmly stood at the top of the pyramid.
But what Pig is going to talk about today is not "Unknown", but the "Death of Romance" eight years ago. Even though
completely conquered Tony Leung, it still couldn't hide the huge controversy that pervades the film to this day.
In the eyes of many people, this is a "sexy movie" that is elegant on the surface but actually focuses on curiosity.
The era of war was turbulent, gangs had grudges and vendettas, and beauties were imprisoned and sexually abused.
Especially the series of large-scale scenes performed by Zhang Ziyi in the film are so explicit that they are almost the first of its kind for mainland cinemas.
If you were watching it in the cinema at that time, those shots would definitely make you jaw-dropping.
But some people say that this is the film with the highest artistic content in the Chinese film industry in the past ten years.
's lines and pictures are rich in connotation, and profound metaphors are almost everywhere.
even commented that it is the Chinese version of "The Godfather" and the Shanghai version of "Once Upon a Time in America ". It is a magical film that most people cannot understand and cannot quit once they understand it.
is as advanced as Jiang Wen's "Let the Bullets Fly".
What is the charm of "The Death of Romance"?
Is it really underestimated, or is it just a modern version of "The Emperor's New Clothes"?
Regardless of whether you have seen this movie before, believe me, every word that follows will subvert everything you know about it.
1,
The story took place in Shanghai in the 1930s.
To be precise, it was 1937, the early stage of the Battle of Songhu.
After a beautiful overhead shot, the movie begins with a man's voiceover of doing homely things.
This man's name is Watanabe, and he sounds like a Japanese from his name.
He came to Shanghai to live in his early years, married a Shanghai wife and gave birth to two sons.
After the blood fusion, he seemed to have completely become a Shanghainese, and he spoke extremely authentic Shanghainese.
His wife has an older brother, known as Mr. Lu in the world.
Mr. Lu’s prototype is actually Du Yuesheng, one of the “three tycoons” in Shanghai.
At that time, the social situation in Shanghai was complex, and there were many problems that could not be solved by the yamen and could only be solved by the "Three Tycoons". The story of
movie begins here.
In a quaint teahouse, Watanabe and Mr. Zhou from the north sat opposite each other.
When Watanabe was talking and laughing, Mr. Zhou also laughed with him.
When Watanabe changed his expression, Mr. Zhou also immediately became serious.
Obviously Mr. Zhou is the lower one and Watanabe is the upper one.
At this time, the c position of the table is empty, and the white tureen belonging to the c position is also different from the other two.
The authority has already been established before the people arrive.
Then, Mr. Lu, played by Ge You, came in, and Mr. Zhou quickly stood up to greet him.
Looking at Watanabe again, he just adjusted his sitting posture slightly, which shows the degree of intimacy.
After Mr. Lu sat down, most of the shots fell on him, and the entire situation was taken over by Mr. Lu.
Mr. Lu talked about the general strike and the kidnapping of workers, and hoped that Mr. Zhou would tell the truth.
But Mr. Zhou only talked about some empty words about workers' rights. He also raised his hands and swore in the name of his wife and mother that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping.
This made Mr. Lu very unhappy.
But Mr. Lu did not get angry. He also talked about the meeting gift he had given to Mrs. Zhou before and continued to show his goodwill.
At this time, the screen cut to a brocade box, with a dark jade bracelet placed in the center of the brocade box.
But the box is too big and the bracelet looks very small and uncoordinated in comparison.
This weird atmosphere also foreshadows what is about to happen next.
At the teahouse, Mr. Zhou once again denied participating in the kidnapping, and Mr. Lu had no intention of talking about it anymore and gave the order to "go and get some snacks."
Then the two sides of the screen alternately appeared. Here, the steamed dumplings were put on the table, and the bracelet box was taken away.
After breakfast, Mr. Lu showed his trump card, "They don't like the current order, and it would be a shame to destroy Shanghai."
This order naturally refers to the order in old Shanghai controlled by gangs and warlords. The alias of the
video is "Old Society", which is actually the topic here.
The "snacks" Mr. Lu mentioned were only served on the table after he finished speaking.
At this time, Watanabe left, and left a message:
"Everyone should take care of such a good place and don't make the tea house a mess."
After Watanabe left, Mr. Lu sat on the sofa - the negotiation was over, The interrogation begins.
Mr. Zhou slowly opened the box in front of him, and what he saw was a severed hand with neat cuts and the jade bracelet still on his hand.
The three previous foreshadowings also came true one by one: the size of the box, Mr. Zhou’s oath in the name of his wife, and the so-called dim sum.
There is another small detail here. This box is made of golden nanmu.
This kind of precious wood is not only used to make furniture and artifacts, but is also often used to make coffins for people of high status.
Mr. Zhou's ending is already doomed.
This scene was calm from beginning to end, but one scene established the image of the four people.
Mr. Lu's "people-oriented" style of acting politely before fighting, Watanabe's secretiveness, Mr. Zhou's cunning, and Ma Zai's cold-bloodedness.
Such a simple dialogue scene also sets the main tone of the entire film.
After Mr. Zhou surrendered and handed over the hiding place, Mr. Lu asked two horsemen to take Mr. Zhou to the train station.
In the car along the way, the director was filming the conversation between the two horses from Mr. Zhou's perspective.
The thug played by Wang Chuanjun is named Gao Mazai, and the thug played by Du Jiang is called Boy Chicken.
Boy Ji had a sweetheart in the countryside. When Gao Mazai asked him if he had ever "done it", Boy Ji showed a different shyness than before.
Gao Mazai scared him, saying that he must take it out and use it before he is twenty, otherwise it will not be useful.
Then, a key line appeared: Once you do it once, you will always want to do it.
From the analysis of the conversation between the two, this was just Gao Mazai's joke about "sex".
But after that, the fate of the two people was never separated from this sentence.
The car arrived at its real destination. Mr. Zhou, who was bruised and swollen, was pulled out of the car and kicked into the grave he had dug early.
At this time, the boy chicken has lost the shyness when talking about "sex" topics, and has a vicious look on his face.
Mr. Zhou looked at the man who was about to kill him and thought of his son.
"I have a son, as old as you."
was just a last word in memory of his son, but it aroused the anger of the boy who was ridiculed all the way.
Then he picked up the shovel and slapped Mr. Zhou on the head wildly, causing blood to spatter on his face.
Thinking back to the time before and after chopping off his hands, Tongziji also looked calm, indicating that this kind of thing happens often.
And the so-called "do it once and you will become addicted" applies not only to sex, but also to violence, exploitation, and all practices under the old order.
Mr. Lu finished dealing with the strike and returned to daily life.
But trouble ensued.
The Japanese wanted to build the Bank of East Asia. They visited Mr. Lu's boss, Boss Wang, through the French Concession to seek cooperation.
Boss Wang didn’t want to take care of these chores and didn’t trust the Japanese, so he pushed the matter to Mr. Lu and Mr. Zhang.
Boss Wang and Mr. Zhang here are based on two other tycoons in Shanghai, Huang Huangrong and Zhang Xiaolin.
Chinese people generally do not discuss matters in too formal occasions.
The first time it was Mr. Lu who took the lead in having morning tea, this time it was him who took the lead again in the massage.
During the game, Mr. Lu talked about the Japanese, and Watanabe sneered at them. He bluntly said that the Japanese were either doing business or fighting. In his words, he showed that he was an authentic Shanghainese.
"The Japanese invaded, what will you do?"
"Of course I will protect Shanghai and fight them tooth and nail."
Everyone laughed.
Watanabe is a special "Shanghai native".
On the surface, he has a deep identity with Shanghai and keeps Japan at a distance.
But in fact, Watanabe's daily behavior is full of insincerity. Several details in the
movie also hint at this hidden thought.
First of all, Watanabe got up and left early when we talked about things twice.
In the Chinese cultural context, leaving the meeting midway has the subtext of "I don't want to be associated with it."
Secondly, although Watanabe often boasts that he loves Shanghai.
But as night fell, he took off his gown, put on Japanese clothes, and cooked authentic Japanese food in the name of the restaurant.
There is also Watanabe’s hospitality to a black stray cat in the film.
This cat often goes to Watanabe's restaurant to eat, and has become friends with Watanabe. When Watanabe saw the stray cat coming, he even cut fish for it.
The scene of one person and one cat eating seems very poetic on the surface.
But the lonely conversation with the black cat also hinted that he could not see the light and only dared to miss his hometown in the dead of night.
These all set the stage for Watabe’s spy identity to be revealed in the second half of the film.
The relationship between the main characters has been smoothed out, and many subsequent scenes are actually very clear.
When it came time to negotiate with the Japanese to jointly open a bank, Nakajima, the president of the Bank of East Asia Preparatory Committee, arrived as scheduled and brought a Japanese soldier with him.
This is a relatively formal meeting, and the seats are also arranged very carefully.
can see that there are six chairs in the hall, but only four people are sitting on them, and two chairs are empty.
These two chairs correspond to two important figures.
One is Boss Wang behind Mr. Lu, and the other is the Japanese Watanabe who has not yet been exposed.
Judging from this scene, the antagonistic relationship between the characters in the movie is very clear.
Although Mr. Lu was a gangster, he did not want to be a traitor. He rejected the Japanese straight away.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhang next to him opened his mouth to ask how many shares he had.
During the negotiation, he was most afraid of public disagreements between the same parties. Mr. Lu quickly raised his hand to stop the conversation and motioned for everyone to drink tea.
"Drinking tea" is a sign that Mr. Lu has released his attitude.
Whether it is the first time with Mr. Zhou or this time with the Japanese, as long as Mr. Lu disagrees with the other party's point of view, he will pick up the tea cup.
This also shows from the side that Mr. Lu acts steadily.
In this meeting, the details of the participants’ clothing were also very meaningful.
Mr. Lu is dressed in black, which represents his strong opposition to the Japanese.
Mr. Zhang wore a contrasting white gown.
He obviously wants to cater to the Japanese.
The negotiations broke up, but the Japanese realized that Mr. Zhang might be a breakthrough.
Mr. Lu, who prevented them from opening a bank, should be eliminated.
In the movie "The Godfather", the drug lord Solaso chose to assassinate the old godfather in the street in order to clear the obstacles.
In "The Death of Romance", the Japanese chose "poisoning".
But he didn't expect to be exposed halfway, and was discovered by Mr. Lu's housekeeper Wang Ma on the spot. Wang Ma was shot and died as a result.
Mr. Lu was so angry that he asked Boss Wang for instructions and planned to invite the Japanese to have a meal and take revenge.
In order to dispel the suspicion of the Japanese, Mr. Lu decided to have the dinner at a Japanese restaurant opened by his brother-in-law.
On the day of the dinner, Mr. Lu and the Japanese arrived early, but Mr. Zhang was late.
Here is a very interesting scene worth pondering: Mr. Lu and the Japanese both brought their own protective guards.
On Mr. Lu's side, Gao Mazai and Boy Ji were lazing around, and they were still comparing the size of their feet.
Even at this juncture, Gao Mazai gave Boy Ji a key and told him that the second floor of No. 38 Sima Road was a place where he could lose his virginity.
When the camera moved, the Japanese were dressed in military uniforms and lined up neatly, exuding a murderous aura.
To a certain extent, this was Cheng Er's hint that the entire Shanghai at that time was actually in a loose and unprepared state against the Japanese invasion.
The kind of romance in the old era, on the eve of its demise, did not even have the slightest nerve to tense up.
Mr. Zhang arrived later although he was late.
When Gao Mazai and Dong Ziji went to greet their "people", several submachine guns were stretched out from the car, and a river of blood immediately flowed outside the door.
At the same time, a gun battle was also going on in the Japanese food store.
After the chaos, Mr. Lu survived and witnessed his brother-in-law being "shot dead" by the Japanese.
At this time, Mr. Lu was still in the dark and did not know that his brother-in-law was the culprit behind all this.
Returning to the house, Mr. Lu found that his entire family had been slaughtered.
In the scene where he is walking blankly through the grand mansion, the director used a set of overhead shots, which is magnificent and full of cruel beauty. The soundtrack is "Where Are You, My Father" written by Cheng Er himself.
At the same time, there were also overhead shots of the entire Shanghai.
A set of montages, forming a wonderful contrast.
Here, the Lu family is Shanghai.
The Japanese invasion broke all the order of old Shanghai and destroyed all the material heritage and cultural foundation here. Everything disappeared in an instant.
belongs to Shanghai's "romantic", and it died like this.
The establishment of the new order was already twenty years later.
Mr. Lu's departure from Hong Kong means that the old order will never return. Even if it comes back, order will not be restored.
At this point, Mr. Lu's story comes to an abrupt end, and a social butterfly named "Xiao Liu" begins to become the main character of the movie.
2,
Xiaoliu is a female movie star.
is free and easy in nature and pursues romance.
Her other identity is that of Boss Wang’s wife.
Obviously, Boss Wang took advantage of Xiaoliu and married her by force.
In Xiaoliu's view, his romance outside is a silent resistance to Boss Wang.
Cheng Er previously photographed the tea game and the mahjong game, each with its own hidden meaning.
also hinted at Xiaoliu's fate in advance through a dinner party this time.
At the dinner party, all the men were wearing white Chinese clothes.
Only Boss Wang is wearing a black coat. Obviously, the protagonist of this meal should be Boss Wang.
But when Xiaoliu was telling a story, Watanabe was in front of the camera, implying that Watanabe would "take over" Xiaoliu.
In addition, there is a close-up of details during the dinner.
When Xiaoliu was telling a story, her handkerchief fell to the ground, and Watanabe picked it up and folded it for her.
The handkerchief dropped coincides with the tragic fate of Xiao Liu.
The movie Xiaoliu auditioned for was called "Happy Flowers and Full Moon". There was a death scene in the film. Xiaoliu asked the director whether the character committed suicide or was killed. The director said he didn't know.
Xiao Liu himself said that he might have gone through countless hardships and finally survived.
This sentence is another portrayal of Xiaoliu’s fate after that, and also reveals a sad sense of fate.
Xiaoliu, who got the big role as expected, felt at ease for a while.
But as soon as he entered the set, he got involved with the movie star Mr. Zhao, and was even featured in the tabloids.
Boss Wang is also a well-known figure in Shanghai. Naturally, he was not happy to be publicly cuckolded.
He and Mr. Lu discussed how to deal with Xiao Liu. He wanted to kill him first, but then he felt it was unnecessary.
The final conclusion is to let Xiao Liu and Mr. Zhao leave Shanghai forever and go as far away as possible.
As time goes by, everyone forgets about it, and the lost face comes back.
This matter was handed over by Mr. Lu to his brother-in-law Watanabe.
As the car drove to the outskirts, a military vehicle suddenly broke into sight, and Watanabe and his party had to give way.
The military vehicle turned on its headlights, and the moment the lights shone on Xiaoliu's face, Watanabe had never found Xiaoliu so charming.
Director why did you arrange a military vehicle here?
Military vehicles represent war, and Watanabe himself is lurking for the war.
Over the years, he behaved himself, married a wife and had children as a Shanghainese, but his wildness for war and bestiality for aggression had been suppressed for too long.
At this time, he urgently needed to do something to alleviate this desire.
The cherry blossom-shaped earrings on Xiaoliu’s ears only aggravated this mentality.
Under double stimulation, he pulled off Xiaoliu's earrings and played with the bloody cherry blossoms in his hands.
Watanabe's sexual desire and murderous desire exploded at the same time.
first killed unrelated people in the car, and then brutally raped Xiaoliu in the car.
Actually, looking at the bigger picture, in this scene, the invader represented by Watanabe, in the posture of a beast, unlimitedly releases the desire for aggression in his heart, breaks everything built in old Shanghai, and then takes everything for himself.
Here, the fate of Xiaoliu and Mr. Lu, although spread across two stories, profoundly completes the intertextuality.
Liu and Lu Ben have the same pronunciation. The two of them, one male and one female, represented the two sides of Shanghai at that time.
Perhaps we can say that Xiaoliu represents the physical body of Shanghai, and Mr. Lu represents the soul of Shanghai. Everything around
's soul was slaughtered, and he fell into endless depression.
Ironically, when burying the body the next day, Xiao Liuben had the opportunity to use the pistol that Watanabe accidentally left in the car, killing this brutal demon.
But not only did she hesitate, she also handed the handkerchief that she had dropped at the banquet to Watanabe's hand. When
handed it over, Xiao Liu seemed to have solemnly handed over a token.
After Watanabe wiped the blood stains with it, he threw it away in the wilderness.
I think that Xiao Liu at that time might have been lucky, hoping that the beast in front of him who raped him would treat him sincerely and give himself a place to live in this troubled world.
did not expect that animals cannot change their nature.
It can also be said that Xiaoliu became a sex slave, to a certain extent, it was his own fault.
Never have illusions about animals. This is a bloody experience we learned from war.
"The Death of Romance" has many characters interspersed with it, and the group scenes are also very exciting.
But the main line of the story actually revolves around Mr. Lu and Xiaoliu.
When we step out of these two characters and look at the theme of the movie, we will find that the theme of the entire movie is profound and grand.
director Cheng Er once said that part of the theme of the film is to express the beautiful parts of that era, which is also the origin of "romantic".
The focus is on how these beautiful parts die.
This kind of beauty is not just the superficial luxury, the pretentious behavior of the characters, and the intuitive presentation of the feasting and feasting of old Shanghai.
is more of a sentiment based on old morality and old order, a classical old-time standard of conduct and social civilization.
For example, Gao Mazai and Boy Ji are just thugs, but they are willing to block his gun.
For example, a prostitute living on Sima Road can use the money she earns from selling her body to treat the injuries of a stranger she has never met.
For example, Xiao Wu, who seems to be weak, is willing to risk his life to fight for Mr. Lu just because of his request.
Another example is Wang Ma, who was placed next to Mr. Lu by the military commander. When she was about to die, she had to gracefully put down the key on her wrist to preserve the dignity of a decent person.
But when this beauty is completely broken, the fate of death is extremely cruel, and it is enough to change and subvert the entire Shanghai.
The war turned the Dubu Department into brutal beasts, allowing Mr. Lu to shoot his nephew who had been raised by him, and turning the innocent Xiao Liu into a slave...
The reshaping of all rules is accompanied by the "death of romance". This is also the truest meaning of this work.
At the end of the video, Mr. Lu enters his mansion again.
The same soundtrack, the same overhead shot, but the direction of movement of the camera is opposite to when he escaped.
The corpses and bloodstains on the ground were replaced by white cloth, and a cruel desolation overflowed the screen.
goes in and out, two simple actions, but everything has changed.
Later, when Mr. Lu passed the border and went to Hong Kong, he took off his long gown and put on a suit for the first time.
only retains a top hat that is commonly worn.
But even with this hat that concealed his face, he failed to keep it in the end.
bent down, lowered his head, and spread out his arms. He had completely surrendered to this new era.
The dignity he was proud of finally disappeared at this moment.
3,
"The Death of Romance" is a movie with both philosophical thinking and realistic implications.
The elegance of the upper class and the brokenness of family and country coexist magically, and the individual wandering and the gloom of human nature make people feel sad.
Just in front of the giant wheel of history, these are so insignificant.
Long gown and top hat, rouge lips, romantic tenderness, after a heavy snowfall, they finally fell silent.
A hundred years later, a river tide rose again on the Huangpu River.
The tide lapped against the river embankment, splashing out a few sparse broken shadows.
is a little vivid, but it flashes by.
is left messy in the wind, crying and wailing.
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