The awakening of insects, the sudden thunder of spring. One of the most popular Chinese movies in March is "".
not only exceeded the box office of 200 million yuan in the first week of its release in the mainland, but also received a high reputation on major rating websites. Even Ethan Juan , which had been dormant for ten years, also successfully returned from winter to spring with this film.
However, despite the praise, the audience also put forward various considerations and reflections on the film, including criticism of the character Cheng Xiaomei. Some viewers believed that this character was just a "little white flower who was rescued" and had weak functionality. In the movie, it is like a "sexy desk lamp" .
"Sexy lamp test" means that if a female character is replaced with a sexy lamp and the story is still not affected, it means there is something wrong with the female character in the work.
Wang Jing, who played Cheng Xiaomei in "The Three Evils", also played the colleague of the male protagonist called "Vase" in the much-anticipated "The Time a Ghost and I Became Family" Lin Ziqing.
"About the Time a Ghost and I Became Family" Wang Jing plays Lin Ziqing
Both are played by Wang Jing. Why are they so wildly compared by the audience?
"Zhou Chu Destroys Three Evils" (hereinafter referred to as "Zhou Chu") is a typical crime drama with a gangster background. Is the portrayal of female characters in really useless?
Why are Chinese movies so fond of the complex between "little white flowers" and "rescuing Feng Chen"?
Cheng Xiaomei in "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils"
Cheng Xiaomei in the movie is a woman who was imprisoned and tortured by the gangster brother "Aberdeen" for ten years. After the protagonist Chen Guilin killed Aberdeen, he rescued Cheng Xiaomei and left a car to let her go free.
The film does not have the common promise of the rescued woman in previous gangster movies. Instead, the two chose to part ways , and Cheng Xiaomei also began to look for a new life.
In this process, there were not many scenes of a hero saving a beauty, nor did there appear scenes of wandering around the world. The two met again before Chen Guilin's execution. Xiaomei helped him shave and sent him off on his last journey.
And this scene is not a love drama in the traditional sense.
Chen Guilin decided to die after "doing a big job". This was a typical young and Dangerous mentality of "leaving his name in death". After losing his last relative, he had no care for the world. But when he finally understood his sin and was about to die with all his karma, he had no relatives, but he once again felt caring like a family member, so he burst into tears. This is the best thing in this world. Leave him the last bit of cruelty and tenderness.
As for Xiaomei, she just tried her best to provide a simple hospice care for the person who saved her.
The character Xiaomei combines the dual attributes of "weak woman" and "rescuing prostitute" that are common in traditional gangster movies. In addition, there is not much screen time. Compared with other male characters, the character portrayal is weak and there is no personal growth. The nudity scenes are indeed It fell into the trap of gangster movies.
However, the film seems to be trying to break away from the old-fashioned love story of a hero saving a beauty, allowing two down-and-out people to pull each other up on the parallel lines of life, but they just happen to complete their own salvation, and at the same time they are unable to resist the fate of the two. torrent.
"Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" Xie Qiongnuan plays Zhang Guiqing
"Little White Flower" Cheng Xiaomei's portrayal has mixed success and failure, but another female character is seriously underestimated, that is the doctor Zhang Guiqing, played by Xie Qiongnuan. She does not have a young and beautiful appearance, nor does she have the strength to compete with the three villains, but she is like a flytrap growing alone, becoming the starting point for the rotation of the gears of 's "Elimination of Three Pests Everywhere" .
Guiqing is an experienced doctor and pharmacist. He has helped Chen Guilin and other gangster brothers heal their injuries for many years. She used a trick to persuade Chen Guilin to surrender, and it was her understatement of "death leaves a name" that planted the seeds in Chen Guilin's mind to eliminate the two evils.
In traditional gangster films, there is less room for female characters to survive. Usually there are only weak women, femme fatales, and gangster sisters-in-law. There are even fewer types of roles assigned to older women. They can only play someone's mother, or there is no such role at all. Role.
But Guiqing breaks out of all the above frameworks. She not only plays a very key role in the story, but is also the only character in the whole film who wanders in the gray area.
She is not only a doctor who saves the world, but she also saves the underworld in front of the operating table; she can not only persuade Chen Guilin to surrender, but also helps him keep a secret; she is not only the most important link in this world, but she also contributes to the world. The person who strikes the fatal blow; She is the Bodhisattva who can overcome the three evils, but she is also the judge who can eliminate them. She exchanges a lie for a causal outcome. She practices medicine, deceives, and does evil, but she also does good.
Such an extremely complex female character is an improvement in the image of women in Chinese gangster films. At the same time, Xie Qiongnuan's performance is sophisticated and sincere. She does not have the constraints of the current film and television industry on actresses to "freeze their age" and even shaved off her hair for the film. Her superb performance in the prison interview room at the end is not inferior to that of her male counterparts. The protagonist, every wrinkle interprets the weight of the word "actor".
"Chou Chu Destroys Three Evils"
Combining the story background of Taiwanese gangs and the shooting techniques of Hong Kong directors, "Zhou Chu Destroys Three Evils" has obvious genes of Chinese gangster movies. As an enduring genre, gangster films range from the Italian Mafia to the familiar Young and Dangerous to the Chinese. Although the languages of gangster films around the world are different, they have many commonalities and mutual influence.
Why are gangster films generally considered to be the least progressive genre films with female images? What do the women in this genre have in common, and how do they influence newcomers like "Zhou Chu"?
Gangster movies originally originated from the mafia legend of Sicily in the 19th century. Its essence is a story of gang wars derived from the inequality between rich and poor in a capitalist industrialized society. The charm of gangster movies is based on the interpretation of gangster legends. The core mechanism of gangs is traditional family concepts and nepotism. Therefore, the vast majority of gangs are male-centered and establish a clear set of gender and hierarchy. Order, to ensure the stability of the family business, so we often see the eldest brother saying "family comes first" in gangster movies.
"The Godfather"
For example, in Francis Coppola's "The Godfather" trilogy, each of the five major families has its own side. The power of each family member is built up layer by layer, and eventually converges into the hands of a boss. Women will not participate in gang affairs. , only exists in weddings. "The Godfather" has profoundly influenced countless gangster films that followed it. Similar hegemonic masculinity is prevalent in these films. Most of the important roles are men, and female characters only appear as elements that provide family value.
For a long time, gangster films have been regarded as men's stories by default. The powerful men in the films have become the ideal projection of the audience, while women can only be used as symbols of desire. Therefore, the women in gangster movies are either the soon-to-be lover of the eldest brother or the wife of the eldest brother.
"Chasing the Dragon 2"
For example, Deborah, played by Jennifer Connelly in "Once Upon a Time in America ", was lusted after by the male protagonist who watched her dance since she was a child. When she grew up, she was violated by the male protagonist on a date. Later she became the mistress of two other male characters. In " Infernal Affairs 2", the sister-in-law played by Carina Lau was the object of desire of the male protagonist Liu Jianming, but she was killed because she refused to submit. Tutu, played by Qiu Yinong in "Chasing the Dragon 2", is the woman doted on by the eldest brother. She has been using the "honey trap" to help him do things, and finally died for him.
"Infernal Affairs 2"
The lower the agency of these female characters in the main story, the higher their functionality in serving desire. Their independent personalities are almost non-existent, but their bodies are used as carriers of desire. , so we often see a paradoxical scene - When big brothers all need bulletproof vests for body protection, women wear sexy singles and wander around in the rivers and lakes filled with bullets. This set of character templates has been imitated and passed down countless times and has become a staple of gangster movies.
The plot of "rescuing the prostitute" often appears in Chinese gangster films. Behind the scenes, is actually related to the underlying narrative unique to the Chinese region.
Different from the Italian Mafia family myths that have been prominent for generations, another reason for the formation of gangs in Chinese-language movies is the need for association of the poor. In troubled times, helpless individuals want to join gangs to survive . Therefore, Chinese-language gangster themes involve a large number of Bottom writing.
"Eliminate Three Evils Every Week"
On the one hand, in the lower class society, the living space for women is even narrower, and many of them have become what others call "promiscuous women" due to their livelihood. On the other hand, Chinese-language gangster films were influenced by martial arts novels, especially advocating the spirit of chivalrous people who encounter injustice on the road, so the "rescuing Feng Chen" complex came into being.
However, driven by the coercion of commercial movies and male desires, many film creators sell this kind of heroic "rescue" as a visual spectacle and commercial element. Early directors of Hong Kong gangster films were even willing to add a lot of elements of curiosity or violence to this aspect to achieve the purpose of attracting commercial attention.
Nowadays, many viewers criticize the plot of "saving Feng Chen" in the movie, but in fact, "saving Feng Chen" itself is not the source of the film's problems. If movies are not made, the underlying reality still exists. If you see people suffering, shouldn't you save them?
The problem lies in the original intention and design of the movie. If the creator only uses women as an eye-catching commercial element, it is also a consumption of the suffering of this group.
"Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" Cheng Xiaomei
Although for a long time in the past, the inertial thinking of male protagonists, male dominance, and female side effects seems to have become the creative template for gangster movies. But in fact, gangster films, as a film genre, have no gender regulations. Is it not a stereotype to think that gangster movies only have male protagonists?
Movies are a creative art. Although stereotypes occupy an overwhelming number, some people are still trying to counter stereotypes. Women in gangster films have gone through a long journey of transformation from being sexual objects on the sidelines to having their own subjectivity and even becoming the protagonists of the story.
In the new wave of Hong Kong films in the 1980s, young directors set off innovative film changes. In addition, influenced by the feminist trend at that time, people were no longer limited by the concept that "action films are only for men". Hong Kong films An image of vigorous and vigorous beating of women became popular. such as the " Royal Senior Sister " series starring Michelle Yeoh, "The Three Heroes of the East" and " Modern Heroes " directed by Johnnie To, etc.
"The Royal Sisters"
"The Three Heroes of the East"
After the millennium, the influence of beating girls has spread to European and American films. For example, director Quentin Tarantino, who was deeply inspired by Hong Kong films, created works inspired by beating girls. The gang member Black Mamba in " Kill Bill ".
"Kill Bill"
"Queen of the South"
In recent years, the female characters in gangster films have been further expanded on the basis of "being able to fight". "Intelligence" and "power struggle" are no longer exclusive games for men , such as the five-season drama "Queen of the South", which is based on real people and tells the story of a woman in a gang, and allows her to abandon old-fashioned methods such as "honey traps" and use her flexible brain and strong will , such female narratives are relatively rare in gangster themes.
"That Time The Ghost and I Became Family"
Wang Jing plays Lin Ziqing
The Taiwanese movie "That Time The Ghost and I Became Family", although it is a crime movie with a male protagonist, the film Lin Ziqing, played by Wang Jing, has a story line that goes against stereotypes. Lin Ziqing just took advantage of everyone's stereotype mentality, making the police and the underworld think that she was a "vase that can be seen through at a glance", and successfully staged a reversal of "the mantis stalks the cicada and the oriole behind", tearing off the label on the vase, And left the out-of-circle line "Which vase can you see through at a glance? The one you can see through is called a glass."
Lin Ziqing is neither interested in being a hero nor a villain. She just wants to complete the revenge for herself and her mother on her own. In the end, she disappears into the night alone in a luxury car. We know that she is not the protagonist of the story. But she is the protagonist of her own story.
After the release of "The Three Evils", Lin Ziqing and Cheng Xiaomei, both played by Wang Jing, were also compared by the audience. These signs indicate that the charm mechanism of traditional gangster movies is loosening.
Nowadays, not only are the ideas of feminism more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but the development of society has already got rid of the family structure in the past. The family functions and structural relationships of "men are the masters of the outside world and women are the masters of the house" rooted in gangster movies have changed dramatically. With changes, patriarchy is no longer the default norm for families or organizations, and even in gangs in some areas of Europe and the United States, female members have held the highest power. Various realities are forcing the old-school genre of gangster movies to make changes for the new generation.
"Chou Chu Eliminates Three Evils"
However, the change in thinking cannot be achieved overnight, and the transformation of movies is a thousand miles away. In the slow evolution of gangster films, there will be both stereotyped and counter-stereotypical female images, just like "Chou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" There will be both Cheng Xiaomei and Zhang Guiqing in "Harm". This is a game between the ancient and the future, narrow and open.
* Picture source network
text/Azhi
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