"The True Colors of Heroes" is a benchmark for the golden age of Hong Kong movies. After it came out in 1986, it set a box office record for Hong Kong since its opening with a box office of HK$34.65 million, and won the Best Film Award at the 6th Academy Awards. . From its popularity in the video tape period to its national re-screening in 2017, it has been a masterpiece of Hong Kong gunfight action movies for decades.
In the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards Association’s 100 "Chinese Film Best Chinese Films in a Century" selection, "The True Colors of a Hero" ranked second only after Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town", which shows that , Both filmmakers and audiences in the industry have a high praise for it.
, as a phenomenon-level movie that has influenced several generations, "The True Colors of Heroes" has been labeled too much. With his "violent aesthetics", Wu Yusen began to wander into Hollywood. The shape of Chow Yun-fat’s Jack Ma’s windbreaker, sunglasses and toothpick, and Fenglinge’s revenge, have become a classic that will never be bored. Leslie Cheung’s "Love of the Year" is a warm band. The sentimental meaning is endless. The
movie combines family affection, friendship, love, these emotional elements that can easily arouse the audience's empathy, so that the audience can appreciate the various flavors of life and feel the love and hatred of urban rivers and lakes in a hearty visual feast. The ups and downs of the world in the changing times, the desperate bet in life's desperate situation, and the struggle to defend dignity after suffering all the humiliation, these all have the full power to move people's hearts. At the same time, the breakthrough of the genre film, the creativeness of the director's personal aesthetics, the positioning of the actor's image and the re-exploration in performance, all reflect the film's commercial success and perfect artistic expression.
Modern Action Movies: The Milestone of Hero Movies
Modernity is the core word of the film's theme content and image style. This modernity is the key to distinguish it from traditional action movies.
From the perspective of spiritual core, in previous action movies, whether Zhang Che portrayed the chivalrous spirit with the masculine beauty and brotherhood of men, or Hu Jinquan used the artistic conception of traditional Chinese aesthetics to interpret the Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, their image world is all The portrayal of traditional rivers and lakes. In Wu Yusen's "The True Colors of Heroes", the inheritance of "chivalry" is continued, and the images are transformed from the classical Chinese aesthetics of deserts and forests into the concrete jungle of modern cities.
Wu Yusen: "In the early days, I liked watching martial arts films very much. I was deeply influenced by Zhang Che and Hu Jinquan, especially those directed by Zhang Che. In addition to expressing a kind of masculinity, his films emphasize loyalty." (See Zhang Huijun" Action: a kind of power, a kind of emotion-famous Chinese director Wu Yusen talks about movies and dreams")
In the 1980s, Hong Kong was already a highly commercialized metropolis. The norms of modern industrial civilization and the fine division of labor gradually disintegrated the traditional grass-rooted society. , Brotherhood. The story of "The True Colors of Heroes" reflects this change quite accurately. The desolation of Song Zihao (Decorated by Ti Lung) and Mark (Decorated by Zhou Runfa) is the true reaction of the psychology in this transitional period.
Therefore, "The True Colors of Heroes", which seems to have Wu's romantic style, has a strong practical significance in essence. The male protagonists in Wu Yusen’s heroic films abide by their chivalrous passions and imperial justice, with a strong sense of justice, but in modern cities they are marginalized identities. They are eager to integrate into modern cities but cannot fully integrate and abide by them. With the faithful chivalry in my heart, the joys and sorrows of urban heroes are played. Therefore, the overall tone of Wu's heroic films has a romantic sadness.
In terms of film expression, in traditional action movies, Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers action movies, the beauty of action lies in the beauty of primitive power and the promotion of kung fu culture, while gunfight action movies are the perfect use of police, bandits and gunfights. Urban stories, shaping contemporary heroes. Therefore, Chow Yun-fat’s hero films and Jackie Chan’s police films became the most representative modern action films in Hong Kong movies in the 1980s.
Chivalrous spirit in the city
In addition to the maturity in genre exploration, the film’s depiction of the emotional core is also perfect. The film is very distinctive in the tonal control of the three male characters. Ti Lung’s calmness and rationality are as calm as water, Chow Yun-fat’s lively and straightforwardness is as enthusiastic as fire, Leslie Cheung has grown from a youthful youth to gradually sympathetic to the complexity of brotherhood. The contrast between each other is complicated and three-dimensional.
01. Brothers’ love in the past: the salvation of heroes
One of the core emotional clues in the movie is brotherhood, and the opposite setting of the brother gangster and the younger brother police has a strong symbolic meaning, the traditional world of rivers and lakesThe fusion with modern urban civilization is embedded in the blood ethics between family brothers. Therefore, Song Zihao's redemption appears to be speculative.
Song Zihao (played by Ti Lung) is a gangster who believes in morality, but he has not been able to get the understanding and recognition of his younger brother Song Zijie (played by Leslie Cheung). He has to redeem his past by breaking away from the gang and re-behave to obtain the justice and order of modern society. The approval of his police brother. However, his salvation cannot be fully forgiven, so he is caught in an ambivalent state of mind. On the one hand, he cherishes the brotherhood between the rivers and lakes established with Xiao Ma, and on the other hand, he aspires to break away from the rivers and lakes and become a qualified citizen in modern society.
The significance of Song Zihao's image is that he is a hero who opposes the image of Gao Daquan, and the core of the hero is also interpreted as a just act and a chivalrous spirit. On the one hand, Song Zihao dared to confess his faults, reflect on his life, and make redemption. On the other hand, he cherishes his friends, protects his younger brother, and keeps his promises. This is not only the justice in traditional martial arts movies, but also the urban world in Wu Yusen movies. Chivalrous spirit.
Therefore, Leslie Cheung's "Love in the Past" and the film convey a relationship that is beyond ordinary emotions, not just brotherhood and friendship. "The True Colors of Heroes" consists of the contradictory relationship between rivers and lakes brothers and blood brotherhood among the three male characters. What is further triggered is the praise of the sincere and pure friendship in all life. What Wu Yusen calls in the image world of grievances and hatred is to cherish the pure and beautiful feelings in these bizarre urban worlds.
02. Chow Yun-fat's interpretation of the tragedy urban knight
Mark is the most distinctive image in the film, which promotes the masculine beauty of the male and carries the tragedy of a grassroots hero.
At the beginning of the movie, Mark's unruly, unrestrained, rebellious, cynical, and game life character has been fully demonstrated, which is extremely brilliant under Chow Yun-fat's distinctive interpretation. He is one of the most thorough urban chivalrous images. He is vigorous, brave and fearless, with righteousness, boldness, chivalry, and rogue. He is brave and courageous. He can give everything to friends even at the cost of giving his life, putting friendship between money and interests. on.
All this was fully demonstrated in the scene where he single-handedly avenged his friend Song Zihao, and when he was unfortunately attacked and turned into a crippled personality, his personality was suppressed, so he began to fall down and suffer the insults of his former men. And when this repression, humiliation, resentment, and unwillingness reached a limit, it started to rebound again. Mark's explosion and resistance showed greater strength, and his unyielding will was vented freely.
When he started to guard his friends and defend his dignity with his injured leg, this masculine beauty was even more prominent. In the end, he finally died in battle with his friends. Mark's publicity and depression, humiliation and release are all perfectly presented under the relaxation of the film's plot.
I have been waiting for three years. I just want to wait for an opportunity. I want to fight for a breath. I don't want to prove that I am amazing. I want to tell people that I must get back what I lost!
Even if it is to escape the story of "The True Colors of Heroes", Chow Yun-fat's pony image has become a spiritual portrayal. It is not only to guard the most precious friendship in life, but also to strengthen the will of life, to never give up for dignity, and perseverance to know the destiny without yielding. The success of Wu Yusen's "Aesthetics of Violence"
"The True Colors of Heroes" has made Wu Yusen's "Aesthetics of Violence" begin to influence Chinese films and even the world's movies. The filming of "Changing Face" in Hollywood brought his personal style to Hollywood movies.
Violence aesthetics unearths the sense of form in gun battles, martial arts and scenes, and promotes the aesthetic sense of form to a dazzling degree. (Hao Jian's "Thoughts Brought by Childbearing-The Origin of Violent Aesthetics")
Wu Yusen uses ritual scenes to give violence a sense of beauty. For example, in a scene in Fenglin Pavilion, the pony hides a gun in a flowerpot Among them, the layout of the revenge process is exquisite and orderly, and the gunfight scenes appear to have both levels and a sense of rhythm.
The form of violence, the core of anti-violence, is the spiritual core of "Heroes". On the emotional motives of the characters, the behavioral motives of defending dignity and family friendship are used to dispel the harshness of the violent behavior itself, making it more reasonable to abide by justice and morality.
In Wu Yusen’s heroic film, although the female image is not as complex and three-dimensional as the male image, it is still Wu's imageAn extremely important part of the world, Zhu Baoyi in "The True Colors of a Hero" and Ye Qianwen in the subsequent "Blooding Two Heroes" are both symbols of purity and beauty, and they reconcile the joy and hatred of the male world. In
, the voice of children singing "Tomorrow will be better" is the meaning of the film's English name "A Better Tomorrow". The reference to Luo Dayou's song is similar to the white dove in "Blood Twins" a few years later. Wu Yusen's "violent aesthetics" ultimately calls for an idealistic peace and beauty, trying to eliminate the grievances and hatreds of the secular world through an absolutely romantic purity and beauty. Interpreting the theme of anti-violence in the form of violence has a profound impact on future Chinese film and television works.
And "The True Colors of Heroes" also conveys the optimistic and optimistic outlook of life that sees through the world, appreciates the open-mindedness and optimism of life through the use of songs such as Rowan's "A Few Storms" and Chen Xiaoyun's "Freedom from Loss".
does not seek the glory of a lifetime, but hopes that the fighting spirit will not be broken. It is natural to see the wind and rain and see the change. After giving the audience a hearty visual experience,
"The True Colors of Heroes" calls for a positive and cheerful life, a pure and beautiful world.
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