Out of my trust in Qiu Litao and my love for Jacky Cheung, I posted an article on the day of the Beijing premiere of " Customs Front " and gave the movie a very positive review. I want to say something here first: I'm sorry to all the netizens who have read this article. I was slapped in the face and misled everyone. This movie is really disappointing.
"Customs Front" has all the foundations required for an excellent Hong Kong film: the screenwriter is Li Min, who has a tacit cooperation with Qiu Litao, and has created works such as " Bomb Disposal Expert 2" and "Anti-Drug 2". Everyone is familiar with director Qiu Litao. He is one of the most cost-effective directors in Hong Kong and can always deliver effects that exceed the production cost. Starring Nicholas Tse x Jacky Cheung x Carrie Lam x Liu Yase , is it a dream combination? This is also the third collaboration between Jacky Cheung and Karen Lam after " Men Forty" and "Dark Paradise". Jacky Cheung hasn't acted in a movie for a long time, so who can't look forward to it.
In addition to the customs elements that are rarely touched on in Hong Kong films, Nicholas Tse not only stars this time, but also serves as action director for the first time, and his co-worker in this task is Wu Yonglun from the family class. The audience's original good expectations were that the theme was novel, the plot was solid, the acting was superb, and the scenes were explosive. However, after spending two long hours, you will understand that all expectations have gone to the other extreme. "Customs Front" is definitely not the worst movie of the year, but it can be the most disappointing movie of the year in advance. It really doesn't live up to the audience's expectations.
Let’s talk about the subject matter first. The customs elements are basically just gimmicks. There is not much development and no detailed description. The character creation is also completely divorced from the customs work. There is a serious disconnect between the two. The core of "Customs Front" is still the same, with the cat-and-mouse game, the confrontation between good and evil, and the chaos caused by the inner ghost. The difference is that this time even the inner ghost line is quite perfunctory.
If anyone is not convinced, think about Chen Musheng's " Stormtroopers: Streets of Fury " or Johnnie To's "ptu", which also have "workplace" elements. See how they create characters and how they combine roles and identities. combined? The serious disconnect between the characters and identities of "Customs Front" and the work of customs completely makes the movie lose its power, making it look strange and strange.
Let’s talk about the plot, it’s still old wine in new bottles, a three-axe used repeatedly by Li Min and Qiu Litao. The confrontation between good and evil is interspersed with some action and big scenes, and some character struggles and love lines are added to make up the time. Finally put on the shell of war and the destruction of life. "Customs Front" is like a rigorous mathematical formula. It has a big picture (the war between the two countries is about buying weapons on the black market and then getting involved in smuggling), big scenes (there are explosions, helicopter air battles, and disaster scenes of freighters rushing into the dock), and emotional lines. (Unable to love and Falling for love), there is suspense (who the inner ghost is finally revealed), it can only be said that Qiu Litao wanted too much, was too ambitious, but lacked ability. In the end, he failed to do anything well and was calculating. The result is that the literary opera is out of touch with the big scenes, just like half-cooked ingredients are casually mixed together. Is Qiu Litao feeding pigs?
Moreover, "Customs Front" not only has a weak plot and loose rhythm, but also has many script polishing problems and various bugs.
Logical problems began to appear from the first action scene. According to logic, "Customs Front" tells the story of customs, and the narrative and plot editing should be as close to reality as possible. However, in the first scene, military planes shoot randomly and important evidence is dragged away without being intercepted. Isn't it too fake? Airspace defense is useless. Who is this insinuating and mocking?
I have not listed them one by one. In the end, it is still out of "calculation". Qiu Litao arranged for Nicholas Tse and the villain to fight hand-to-hand on the submarine. Whether the fight was good or not was put aside for now. Then he handcuffed the criminal with himself. What did he do? joke? Holding your breath for four minutes and bringing the other person to the surface out of duty is too middle-of-the-road and completely unbelievable.
What is even more regrettable is the lack of elements, which exposes the perfunctory and incompetent screenwriter. To avoid spoilers, one of the protagonists in the film is a "ghost" hiding in the customs. He has been cooperating with the criminal group in smuggling, and he is better at hiding it.Once this element is shot, it can be as exciting as " Infernal Affairs ". Even if the shot is not as good, you can also copy the homework of " Chills " and " Equator ", but it is not at all. This element is almost mentioned in one stroke. Done hastily.
Let’s talk about acting skills. Without a good script, no matter how good the drama is, it won’t work.
Almost all of the protagonists were disappointed. Did Nicholas Tse focus all his attention on action design? The fighting scenes were soft, and the literary scenes were almost emotionless, especially the scene in the hospital where Katie sacrificed herself. I was angry but not emotional enough. I was crying but there were no tears. The more the scene went on, the more embarrassing it became.
In addition to gaining weight, Lin Jiaxin's acting skills have also declined. Like Francis Ng , she only completes the acting tasks and symbolizes the character. The only bright spot in
is Jacky Cheung. The manic depression was well performed, and the evil smile, mental distress, etc. were all externalized well. If the character creation only has 75 points, then Jacky Cheung achieved 80 points with his performance.
Because the movie is too weak in other aspects, almost all the publicity I saw praised Jacky Cheung’s acting skills, and even made a series of emoticons. I really want to shout out to the promoters here, please show some face, don’t use Jacky Cheung as a fig leaf, blindly It consumes him. If the movie doesn't work, it just won't work. Just admit it.
Oh, and there are action scenes. It's quite satisfactory, with no surprises or surprises. The boundary between real shooting and special effects is very obvious. Moreover, there is a serious disconnect between the drama and the big scenes, which makes all the big scenes uninteresting. As for the hand-to-hand combat that I'm more looking forward to, as I said before, it's all soft. The gun battles, actions, and explosions are all familiar, and there is nothing new in "Customs Front".
If I had to pick one new thing, it would be the ending song. It was composed by Nicholas Tse and sung by Jacky Cheung, which is quite nice.
The quality of the film is not good. In addition to the positive reviews from invited audiences at the premiere before the release, there have been a lot of negative reviews. On Douban's homepage, one viewer gave the show one star and complained, "How could it be so ugly?" Another netizen angrily accused Qiu Litao of "treating the audience as fools and lagging behind the audience."
However, the solid film market has taught Qiu Litao another lesson. Audiences are not fools and are not so easy to be deceived. Affected by word-of-mouth, "Customs Front"'s single-day film share and box office continue to decline. As of the time of writing, it has only exceeded 60 million. It is predicted that The total box office is 184 million. Based on a 36% split, the film studio will be split 66 million by then, which is difficult to cover the production costs and the probability of losing money is high.
doesn't mean to gloat, but I can't help but say that "Customs Front" deserved its box office failure.
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