Today, the Kowloon Walled City has become a highly abstract representative.
In Hollywood blockbusters, it is a Hong Kong local style painting with low-altitude planes flying over; in the cyberpunk aesthetic, it is a template for decadent doomsday streets with flashing neon lights; in Hong Kong-style action movies and comics, it is disordered The place where violence and pornography are sold is the birthplace of the legend of the underground kingdom.
The Kowloon Walled City, which was demolished as early as September 1993, is actually not that abstract and romantic. It is just an urban poor residential area formed under the influence of various historical reasons. It was first built in 1843 (during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty). It covers an area of only 2.7 hectares and accommodates a population of more than 50,000. The environment is dirty and messy, and it is a place where filth and evil spread. place.
The reason why the Kowloon Walled City can become a certain carrier of artistic imagination may be because under the folding order of the city, there is always a potential wave of reflection, which like a whirlpool absorbs the creators of the Mugu Autonomous Region. They combine aesthetics and reflection. The combination of ideas finally landed on Kowloon Walled City.
In the Kowloon Walled City, the gangs are autonomous, thus forming a system of Mugu autonomy; and due to the constraints of scarce resources, the people living here trample and fight with violence and ambition that is almost animal instinct, which also provides Violent conflict provides a breeding ground.
The combination of these two is the prerequisite for the creation and viewing of " Kowloon Walled City: The Siege " . As director Paul Cheng said, "The most difficult thing about making this movie is not the plot, but how to reshape the world of Kowloon Walled City."
"The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" is based on the fighting novel of the same name by Hong Kong novelist and cartoonist Yu Er adaptation. When director Zheng Baorui turned it into a movie, the answer he gave was autonomy, Mugu, affection, and violence. In a word, it was martial arts .
Refugee Chen Luojun (played by Raymond Lam) who smuggled into Hong Kong wanted to buy a fake ID card and live a good life, but was forced by the villain boss (played by Sammo Hung) to have no way out. In desperation, he grabbed a bag of drugs and fled into the Kowloon Walled City dominated by Tornado (Louis Koo). In the Kowloon Walled City, he received the care of the tornado and found the feeling of home. He also formed the "Four Young Masters of the Walled City" with Xinyi, Twelve Young Masters and Fourth Young Master to maintain law and order. Even later, when the big boss forces invaded and the tornado fell, the four young boys fought against the crazy guy, and finally their great revenge was avenged.
Because of the "martial arts" story core, this movie has a lot of omissions in the plot, and even seems too straightforward. It's like the brotherhood between the male protagonist Tornado and Chen Luojun's father in the film. Because they belong to different camps, they draw swords against each other while secretly entrusting their wives and children to each other. But how to show the brotherhood? A shaving scene is enough. This is the tacit understanding of Chinese audiences who are immersed in martial arts culture. They can be enemies and fight to the point of life and death, or they can be heroes who care about each other and leave things behind. There is no need to say much about the ups and downs in between.
For another example, the friendship between the four young masters began with a game of mahjong, and then they encountered a waterloo. After being driven out of the city by the big boss, they played mahjong again. They became friends from there, and in the end they win and lose together. form a response. This friendship between China and the two people, which seems a bit silly today, is exactly the implicit consensus of "this is how it should be" influenced by martial arts culture. Times will change, the bosses will be renewed, and the walled city will be demolished, but the friendship will last from the beginning to the end. In the end, everything remains the same.
Of course, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" itself does not focus on plot. In Cheng Baorui's creative sequence, this is not an exploration film of the author's film. Zheng Baorui's positioning of it is industrial setting and filming, minimalist to retro revenge storyline, and refreshing action presentation.
Yes, the action is the real plot of this movie.
It can even be said that the most important screenwriter of this movie is not the screenwriter Ou Jianer and others, but the action director Tanigaki Kenji. The plot is secondary, the action scenes are what really need to be choreographed. Just like the battle between the Four Young Masters and the Mad Man, as long as they shout "paper", the audience will immediately understand that this is the move used by the four in the initial fight. There are countless similar action designs to
.For example, the nickname "Tornado" and the foreshadowing of his love of flying kites will become the inspiration of a gust of wind and a human-shaped kite in the final battle, allowing Chen Luojun and the others to rise from a weak position and become an opportunity to turn defeat into victory.
Hong Kong style action guidance tasks are divided into several levels from easy to difficult. The most basic requirement is to design a wonderful fighting scene; the next level is to match the action skills with the character's personality, making the action a part of shaping the character; and the most difficult level is to use "action" to weave the story , echoing before and after.
This is Cheng Baorui's choice in this retro action drama: control the literary drama and leave it to the fighting drama. Action director Kenji Tanigaki used Hong Kong-style action comics as the basis for the fighting scenes, amplifying the effects of action and destruction, which is an exaggeration of "punch through a wall with one punch". In line with this amplified effect, the characters have also improved their reaction and endurance capabilities, and all of them are semi-supermen who cannot be killed.
is just an exaggerated style that enlarges Hong Kong comics and puts it on the big screen. It will become a comedy due to distortion (the way Stephen Chow achieved it in " Kung Fu "). This is also a point that many viewers find difficult to accept. The characters are invulnerable. , flying over the eaves and walking over the walls, as if possessed by magical powers.
But viewers who are familiar with Hong Kong-style action movies can find this balance of comic-style distortion and physical effects in a large number of action movies. "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" is actually a movie with a slight threshold for viewing. It is not that the story is brain-burning, but that its presentation method creates a barrier to aesthetic taste. Today, brotherhood, revenge stories, the balance between comic action and fist-pumping and physicality, which Hong Kong movies were once good at, have become a rarity due to the decline of the industry.
This is also the ultimate sigh for Hong Kong film fans about "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City": It's been a long time since it's been a Hong Kong action movie.
Half a Lifetime
Editor-in-Chief Chen Lingling
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