Author of this article: Li Xiaotian
John Woo, the great director who once dominated the Hong Kong film and television industry, last directed a work called "The Hunt" which was released in 2017. Unfortunately, it was released 7 years ago.
Going even further, the two films "Taiping Wheel" (Part 1 and Part 2) that preceded "Zhui Pu" were also thrown into the street.
Going back further, it is "Red Cliff (Part 2)" which was released in 2009. This is already a long time ago, it has been 15 years.
As a director, John Woo has disappeared from the public eye for too long.
The last Hollywood movie he directed was "Memory Crack", which was released in 2003. This has been 21 years ago.
did not join the club and admit defeat, especially the big boss who once had all the power. So does John Woo.
So, at the end of 2023, John Woo returned, and went directly back to Hollywood to direct a gunfight action movie that was very Hollywood-like, "Still Night".
finally made a comeback. It must come up with something, some ideas, and some creativity.
"Quiet Night Fighting" is novel enough, and it can be said that it is very thoughtful in terms of creativity.
Can you think of a movie in which the main character doesn't say a word?
the whole process.
Movies are audio-visual art, relying on images and sounds. Not to mention the visuals, the sound includes soundtrack and lines. Lines are an extremely important part of film art.
How can I act in a movie without lines?
John Woo did it, "Still Night" did it. Very creative.
Movies without sound can still make good movies. In fact, there are also high-quality predecessors. "A Quiet Place" has achieved excellent results with its excellent creativity. Not only has it produced a sequel, but it has also produced an expanded universe. It can be said that it is a big movie. A complete victory.
The lack of sound in "A Quiet Place" simplifies the soundtrack to the extreme. As for the movie characters, they can actually talk and have lines.
The reason why there is no music and no talking in the film is because alien creatures follow the sound and chase them. Sound is the source of fear. This setting is quite novel, unexpected, and full of horror effects. The two "A Quiet Place" films that have been released so far are both quite good.
In addition, there are also good movies without lines, typical examples include "That Summer, the Sea of Tranquility" directed by Takeshi Kitano, and the Korean film "Silent" starring Yoo Ah-in. Both of these are literary films.
"That Summer, the Sea of Tranquility" is about the love between two deaf-mute people, emphasizing that love is speechless. Even if the two people don't speak, they can still interpret the true meaning of love very touchingly. Kitano Takeshi, a bad old man, once Even though it's gentle, it's still very catchy. It's such a unique love movie and it's worth watching.
There are no lines in "Silence", and the protagonist Yoo Ah-in is also set as a deaf-mute and a foolish country boy. He appeared to be a villager buying vegetables, but in fact he was a corpse collector, responsible for disposing of corpses for murderous gangsters. It appears that this is a crime film, but in fact it is about the awakening of human nature. It is essentially a literary film. Before making any mistakes, Yoo Ah-in was still very strong and contributed actor-level performance.
There is also a domestic film called "Breaking Silence". The male protagonist Song Yang also cannot speak and has no lines throughout the film. But this film is not a success, and Song Yang's performance is not very good, so it can be ignored.
Therefore, if the protagonist does not speak and has no lines, the film can still be well acted, and there is a successful precedent.
John Woo has precedents to follow, but how can I put it, the effect of "Still Night" is still unsatisfactory and quite average. John Woo's comeback was very unsuccessful.
If it weren't for John Woo, this film wouldn't even be worth talking about.
If we want to make an analogy, "Silent Night" is very close to "Death Penalty" (also translated as "Illegal Sanctions") directed by James Wan and starring Kevin Bacon.
As the contemporary "godfather of horror films", James Wan created the "Saw Universe" and "The Conjuring Universe" which were extremely successful, and directed the blockbusters "Fast and Furious 7" and "Aquaman" which were also huge successes. "Aquaman 2" was also directed by him. The main reason for its failure was DC, not him.
"Death Penalty" is the only non-horror film directed by James Wan in the early stage.
"Death Penalty" is a crime film. It tells the story of a company vice president who has a happy family and lives a happy life. However, he encounters a gangster while filling up at a gas station. Coincidentally, the gang members were going to have a "coming of age ceremony", and the vice president's son became a stepping stone for the gangsters to submit their names and was killed inexplicably. In front of the vice president's eyes, he watched helplessly as his son was killed.
When the murderer was detained, he was not dealt with seriously. The vice president was anxious. Since the law would not give me justice, I would seek justice for myself. How to discuss
?
is tolerable and intolerable. If you can't tolerate it, there is no need to tolerate it anymore.
takes revenge and fights against the underworld.
So, a corporate man in Jinling, who was pampered all day long, turned around and shaved off his exquisite hairstyle, began to exercise like crazy, and then began to single-handedly attack the underworld's gangster den.
The movie is very cliché, but it's still quite enjoyable. In particular, James Wan borrowed some shooting techniques from thrillers to make the film more beautiful.
"Death Penalty" was released in 2007. Unexpectedly, 16 years later, John Woo actually copied "Death Penalty".
It’s just that John Woo made the protagonist speechless.
Like "Death Penalty", the male protagonist of "Quiet Night" originally had a happy family.
As a result, his son was hit by a stray bullet during a gang fight and died on the spot. The male protagonist was also hit on his vocal cords, causing aphasia and being unable to speak.
But the desire to avenge his son also burned the furious male protagonist. He was determined to take revenge and kill the gang.
Although the details are different, the story framework of "Quiet Night" and "Death Penalty" are the same.
The sad thing is that the later "Quiet Night" is not as good as the earlier "Death Penalty".
is path dependent.
James Wan is good at shooting thrillers, and his grasp of the rhythm of the film is very accurate, so in "Death Penalty" and later "Fast and Furious 7" and "Aquaman", he still made good use of his experience to play the blockbusters. Very slippery.
John Woo’s experience was accumulated in Hong Kong police and gangster films. When he directly copied the experience of Hong Kong films and just replaced the Hong Kong actors with Hollywood actors, the film "The Replacement" was completely reduced to an awkward work.
absorbs the essence of Hong Kong films and carries out innovative productions. "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Face/Off" made John Woo famous. Including "Wind Talker" and "Memory Crack", which later hit the streets, although the box office did not do well, their reputation was not bad and they were full of appreciation.
However, the failure at the box office has already ended John Woo's Hollywood journey.
Back in China, his film "Red Cliff" was already successful with its cast and scenes. Although it was a hit at the box office, its reputation did not improve. It only left a few lines such as "cute" and "somewhat understandable". As for "Peace Wheel", even the big cast still couldn't save the script. The first part of the movie was already very bad, and the second part was completely silent when it was released.
John Woo's remake of "Manhunt" using the two-hero model that he is proud of, was also a complete mess. Let people see that the era of Director Wu has really passed.
Of course Director Wu himself did not admit it, so he directed "Still Night Fighting", once again proving with facts that he is really old.
In the final analysis, the script of "Still Night Fighting" is not good, and neither is the shooting technique.
While watching "Still Night", I felt that this was not a film of the present, but a work of that era thirty or forty years ago.The whole film has a strong feeling of the "Drunken Master" and "Shaolin 13 Sixth Chamber" period films. The wronged male protagonist wants to go through some hard training to complete the transformation and upgrade, and finally embark on the road to success. The process of perfect revenge.
There are also scenes of the male protagonist exercising in "Death Penalty", but there are not many, and it is not the focus. There are too many in "Quiet Night". It's not like "Drunken Master", "Shaolin Temple", "Snake Shaper" and "Thirty-six Chambers of Shaolin", where the practice process is beautifully shot and can even become the highlight of the film and exist independently of the film, but " The training process in "Still Night Fighting" is just to practice for the sake of practice, and then practice to the point where you don't know what to do. Apart from wasting shots and time, it has no value in existence. John Woo's shooting technique is too outdated. It is wrong to absorb the spirit of Hong Kong films. It is wrong.
Then, the main fighting scene comes later. It is said that the scene has reached the main point, so we can have a good time.
The current action movies have been corrected by "John Wick". Fighting scenes pay attention to being fierce and sharp, never being sloppy, being able to kill with one move, and never wasting the second move.
The fighting scenes in "Still Night Fighting" are quite interesting in terms of camerawork and quite thoughtful. But there are too few, and in many scenes, it is obvious that the protagonist's appearance is taken care of, and he still pursues a handsome character. John Woo still followed the same path as Ma Ge played by Chow Yun-fat. The male protagonist, Joel Kinnaman, is far from handsome, but John Woo pursued Kinnaman's handsomeness during the fight, which made the audience laugh and cry. What age has this been, why are you still doing this?
Joel Kinnaman is also really miserable. He once played the male lead in "RoboCop", but the film that could have been made into a series was stalled after only one film. Naturally, Kinnaman didn’t take off. Later, he became the captain in "Suicide Squad" and had a lot of roles, but his roles were taken away by his members, and he was not outstanding at all. As a protagonist, if he failed to seize the two opportunities, he would be indifferent.
If "Silent Night" could be a hit, it would save the careers of John Woo and Joel Kinnaman at the same time, but it crashed, which is not good news for two people who are in desperate need of saving.
only talks about John Woo, who was once listed as the three masters of "violent aesthetics" along with Quentin Tarantino and Takeshi Kitano. Now it is probably time to retire.
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