Interface News Reporter | Hu Yujing
Interface News Editor | Jiang Yan
In the movie market that has been quiet after the Spring Festival, " Weekly Remove Three Evils " (hereinafter referred to as "Zhouchu") has quickly become a dark horse. "Zhou Chu" has almost no pre-publicity. Compared with the regular Spring Festival release, it has sharp edges. The movie combines bloody violence, cult spirituality, and the publicity of evildoers and other sensitive topics, but it does not scare the audience away, but instead brings a refreshing look and feel. So far, its Douban score is as high as 8.1 points, and its box office has reached nearly 400 million.
The finale of the film is straightforward and lackluster
However, this kind of praise and discussion may not be because "Zhou Chu" itself has too many innovations and excellence. It's because of the over-marketing during the Spring Festival and the composition-like presentation of the finished film that it made the audience tired and lowered their expectations for the big screen. At this time, "Zhou Chu" with a completely different temperament quickly captured the audience's attention.
In the first half of the film, the male protagonist Chen Guilin has several intense hand-to-hand fight scenes with police chief Chen Hui and Hong Kong Aberdeen, which is reminiscent of Korean crime action films such as "The End", in which desperadoes chase each other. The respite from the confrontation, the vicious fight being unstructured and violent, made the audience oppressed by the director's narrative rhythm while they were concerned about Chen Guilin's fate. The second half of
suddenly calms down, and the painting style becomes fresh and natural. The director deliberately made the style appear fragmented to hint at the strangeness beneath the peace of the new mind. The church massacre that breaks out at the end is the climax of the film, and it is also the film's largest scale. Dozens of congregants are shot in close-up, one by one, giving the film a cult quality.
But it is a pity that this finale has the feeling of replicating famous scenes. Whether it's Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" or the British spy film "Kingsman" directed by Matthew Vaughn 10 years ago, there are highly similar scenes. Compared with Quentin's extreme and slightly pathological aesthetics of violence and Colin Firth's smooth gunfights and killings accompanied by rock music, the scene in "Zhou Chu" and Ethan Ruan still seems a bit straightforward and dull.
Colin Firth's "Kingsman: The Secret Service"
The afterglow of the golden age of Hong Kong movies
In addition, the overall neat editing of "Chou Chu", the narrative structure of the hero's struggle, and the theme of people being tricked by fate have galactic images. The taste of Johnnie To in the period. Throughout the film, no matter what situation Chen Guilin is in, he has the drive to do things artificially. He persistently believes that he can change his destiny and believes that he can be a "newly created person." In the film
, Chen Guilin experienced three fateful fools. At the beginning of the story, doctor Guiqing told Chen Guilin: He had lung cancer and had only six months to live at most. He asked the doctor to find him a new lung to prepare for lung replacement surgery. After his wish for recovery failed, he began to eliminate the three evils. However, in the peaceful new spiritual home of Penghu Island, he mistakenly thought that Lin Luhe was dead, and his lung cancer was miraculously cured. He opened his heart and gave up fame and fortune. Desire for power, endured the whipping, followed the Lord, blindly believed in the teachings almost like a wise man, and began to live in seclusion. And this was another cruel joke played by fate on him.
In the end, he eliminated the three evils and surrendered to the police. However, he learned in prison that he had never suffered from cancer, and that the doctor Gui Qing was the cancer patient. He lied to gain virtue for himself and Chen Guilin. At the end of the film, Chen Guilin was executed. This was his destined ending, but before reaching this ending, he thought many times that he could change his fate. This is the absurdity of the film.
is also a director from Hong Kong, China, and also shoots gang fights. In Johnnie To's movies, you can also see plot designs that play with the fate of characters and express the unpredictable fate. In "Dark Flower", the police officer Achen played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai's fate was completely changed because of rumors that a big boss was about to be cleared out. In the end, when he defeated his old enemy and thought he could board the ship and leave safely, a few desperadoes killed him as a joke. . The wheel of fortune is activated by lies, and finally takes away the protagonist's life as a joke. This is the theme similarity between "Zhou Chu" and Johnnie To.The director of "Chou Chu", Huang Jingfu, is a Hong Konger. Therefore, although the film is a film from Taiwan, it has the flavor of the afterglow of the golden age of Hong Kong cinema.
Due to the assembly of styles and the old-fashioned Hong Kong flavor of the characters and themes, "Zhou Chu" can hardly be said to be novel or outstanding. Coincidentally, because imported films and Hong Kong and Taiwan films have been out of the scope of movie viewing options for too long, Huang Jingfu mixed violence and absurd elements that are rarely seen on the screen today, and packaged the story with a decent coat of gratification and revenge, and eliminating evil and returning to good. After being swept away by the family carnival and comedy during the Spring Festival, the audience was surprised and shocked, which pushed up the reputation and box office of "Zhou Chu".
Stills from "Away with Three Pests"
The sense of grassroots and freshness make it stand out
And the actor Ethan Ruan himself, after becoming the youngest Golden Horse Best Actor at the time with "Monga" in 2010, returned to the gangster that suits him best. track, created the next highlight role on the screen, and was once again nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor. It must be mentioned here that Ethan Ruan's plump and smooth skull is really suitable for shaving his head to play a gangster. Coupled with the large-size suit he inherited from his previous boss, he continues to release a dangerous and relaxed unique charm.
looks back on Ethan Ruan's career. He became famous through classic idol dramas such as "Green Forest", "Destined to Love You" and "The Lost Dog Queen". After the success of "Monga", he switched to the film track and worked closely with director Niu Chengze on films such as "Love" and "Army Paradise". As the local market fell into a downturn, he chose to "go north" and frequently collaborated with mainland directors and actors in romance films. He successively filmed films such as " City in Love ", " Lies in Sicily ", and " New York New York ". Later, with the rise of streaming media in the mainland, Ethan Ruan filmed online dramas such as " Ghost Blowing the Lamp: Huangpizi Tomb " and " Psychological Crime: City Lights ". At the same time, he appeared in multiple reality shows and variety shows, and was in the ancient puppet drama "" "Fuyao " partner Yang Mi , followed a similar path to mainland popular actors. These attempts were not very successful, and he eventually returned to the film industry and became famous again through a low-cost crime action film.
In Ethan Ruan, we can see the transformation process of a group of idol drama actors in Taiwan. For example, Qiu Ze, who won the Best Actor Award at the Taipei Film Festival a few years ago with the Netflix-invested " who fell in love with his first", starred in the online drama "Detective Chinatown 2" which just started airing recently. And Zhou Yimin, who has successively produced the ancient puppet drama "Fire Cantabile" and the suspense drama "Reversal". Of course, there are also Ming Dao and Yan Chengxu who have returned and are still filming idol dramas for half their lives. The difference is that they were filmed in Taiwan, China, but now they are filmed in mainland China.
went from idol dramas in Taiwan at the beginning of the century to local movies in Taiwan around 2010, to co-productions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places, and then joined the mainland's costume idol dramas and suspense IP craze. In the eyes of the audience, actors from Taiwan, China are similar to actors from Hong Kong, China. They have excellent acting skills and professionalism, and can give up their idol baggage and perform hard. Off-screen, he is more like a "living person". He will say in interviews, "In my circle of friends, there are vegetable farmers, pork sellers, and people who get up at two in the morning to work the night shift... Everyone thinks artists are very mysterious, so Mystery is nothing but self-restraint, trapping oneself in a cage." And this sense of grassroots and freshness is also the reason why Ethan Ruan can become Zhou Chu and why this movie can still be outstanding on the passing line.
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