905 Film Network Special Article Speaking of "The Negotiator", you may think of the Hong Kong movie "The Negotiator" or the Hong Kong drama "The Negotiator", and there will also be a "The Negotiator" to meet the audience during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
The movie "The Negotiator" is produced by Andy Lau, written and directed by Qiu Litao, and stars Liu Qingyun and Wu Zhenyu. The film tells the story of negotiator Zhuo Wenwei (played by Liu Qingwan) who was framed as a suspect for the murder of his comrades in the police force. He realized from various clues that he was falling into a trap. In desperation, he fought hard to escape and in the process of tracing the truth, he held hostage He took hostage and appointed former negotiator Xie Jiajun (Francis Ng) to talk to him. The two masters of "convincing people with their words" staged an extreme tug-of-war of words.
"Today's Film Review" invited Suo Yabin, a professor at Communication University of China, to talk about whether the movie "The Negotiator" is the best choice for viewing during the Dragon Boat Festival?
Localized adaptation, fresher than previous Hong Kong films
Regarding the completion of "The Negotiator", Suo Yabin gave a 6.5-point evaluation: "On the whole, Director Qiu Litao completed this sketch in a short and fast way. style works”.
"The Negotiator" is a remake of the American movie " Ace vs. Ace ". The content and direction of the story are basically "respect for the original". The original version received a high score of 8.5 on Douban, and it also won the Douban Unpopular Crime Film List. top position. Compared with the original version, the localization transformation carried out in this Hong Kong version has advantages and disadvantages.
First of all, the completeness, complexity, rationality and internal logic of the movie's story are very good. It can even be said that the "twisting, rich, complete and interesting" storyline embodied in "The Negotiator" not only exceeds It surpassed many of director Qiu Litao's previous works, and even "instantly beat" 95% of previous Hong Kong police and gangster films.
In addition, Director Qiu Litao deliberately strengthened his concern and sympathy for vulnerable groups in the film. For example, the mentally disabled husband played by Andy Lau only wanted to retrieve his children when he took hostages because he thought their children were on welfare. The office was snatched away.
The selection and inclusion of social issues can be said to be a very effective strategy for the director to localize the film. In addition, many films in Hong Kong in the past two years have begun to focus on social issues, and "The Negotiator" also has an inherent echo with them. .
It is undeniable that there is a certain gap compared to the original "The Negotiator". Director Qiu Litao showed his hidden clumsiness in this film. He knew that if he could not do better than the original film, then he would make it better. It was shot intact, so more than an hour of the movie is almost a replica of the original film.
In addition, in the original work, he was an elite of the police force but was suddenly framed by a traitor and fell into a desperate situation. The confrontation between good and evil was full of tension. In "The Negotiator", the relationship between the two protagonists was modified into It's similar to a tacit understanding between peers where heroes cherish heroes. Without the sense of confrontation and tension in the original work, there is actually a loss.
The starring cast of "The Negotiator" is still the same familiar Hong Kong stars. Most of them are over sixty years old, and the cast team is too old.
When the protagonists of the original American version confront each other, the inner emotional state conveyed by the sharp eyes, rich body language and lines is very full and strong, while almost everyone in "The Negotiator" feels a little tired. Therefore, its sense of atmosphere, tension and oppression are not revealed.
The best movies to watch during the Dragon Boat Festival, worth watching
Is it still a good choice to watch "The Negotiator" in the theater during the Dragon Boat Festival? In the past two years, there has actually been a very obvious change in the audience's movie-watching habits, which are concentrated on holidays. Even for relatively small holiday schedules like the Dragon Boat Festival, it is very dominant.
So in this period, when commercial blockbusters without large investment are released, well-made genre films like "The Negotiator" need to be released.
Director Qiu Litao is a well-known "fast shooter" in the industry. Those who shoot better than him are not as fast as him, and those who are faster than him are not as good as him. He respects the laws of the market and will not affect the quality and schedule of his movies because of his personal creative expression. Judging from an artistic perspective, his works may not be very high, but they are definitely very qualified cultural consumer goods.
Therefore, "The Negotiator" is undoubtedly the leading representative work in this small period of the Dragon Boat Festival, and there is no problem that its overall box office exceeds 100 million. When the vicious-tongued robber Liu Qingyun meets the mouth of negotiator Ng Chun-yu, what exciting confrontation the two will have is worth going to the cinema to find out.
