It has been 125 years since Hong Kong returned to its motherland html . It is also the 25th year that Hong Kong films have developed collaboratively with the mainland. Hong Kong films, which emerged in the 1960s, have slowly developed from being limited to the local film industry to moving north to China since its return to the motherland.
▲Hong Kong films reached their peak in the 1990s. At that time, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, and South Korea were known as the "Four Asian Tigers". Against the backdrop of economic boom, Shaw Brothersmovies The martial arts films and kung fu films produced by the company are popular all over Asia for their excellent entertainment and viewing value.
▲ "The Dominion of the World" in 1998 not only made breakthroughs in special effects technology, but also opened the door for the development of Hong Kong films northward. Door
Nowadays, people often say that the glory of Hong Kong films has passed. The classic Hong Kong films that people often mention were all produced in the ten years around the millennium. Now that so much time has passed, it is still the same group of actors that everyone wants to watch.
Perhaps the glory of the predecessors was too dazzling, but in fact, in recent years, Hong Kong has still produced many masterpieces that combine reputation and quality. Many high-scoring mainland movies have also been produced by Hong Kong teams.
▲ Lam Chiu-hsien The critically acclaimed action trilogy " Operation Red Sea ", " Operation Mekong ", " Emergency Rescue "
The group of Hong Kong filmmakers who have experienced hardships are indeed the best. immortal.
▲We can still see the names of Hong Kong filmmakers such as Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, Chen Kexin, Er Dongsheng, Pang Haoxiang
On this special occasion on the anniversary of the handover Today, the editor carefully selected a list of high-scoring Hong Kong movies of and in the past ten years.
From this you can see that Hong Kong movies have always used their own way to show everyone its unique social environment, historical flavor, multiculturalism, and humanistic tolerance. Therefore, Hong Kong movies will always have their own unique style and charm, not only from Feelings of the past.
Perhaps you can also re-understand this city with many labels.
Chill / 2012/ Douban 7.5 points
Director: Liang Lemin / Lu Jianqing
Screenwriter: Liang Lemin / Lu Jianqing
Starring: Aaron Kwok / Liang Jiahui / Li Zhiting/Eddie Peng/Yang Caini
Type: Drama/Action / Crime
"Chill", starring Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung two powerful movie stars, is the first locally produced film in 1 to come to Hong Kong after 2001 with an annual box office of over 100 million .
I believe that most movie fans have watched "Infernal Affairs", which is known as the most successful police film in Hong Kong. When watching "Cold War", it is inevitable that they will have some visual feelings about the police and robber elements : police and robber contests, gun battles, car crashes, and explosions. , and even "ghosts".
▲ The classic scene of "Infernal Affairs"
The whole movie from the beginning to the end, the plot is interlocking step by step, the rhythm is tense and exciting, the kind of bullets flying, full of power, mixed with guns The tension of fire and blood can bring the audience to experience the "Hong Kong flavor" that is unique to Hong Kong movies.
This Hong Kong flavor is also reflected in the use of in the lens.
For example, the video uses aerial photography at the beginning to give a panoramic view of Hong Kong: Victoria Peak in Central, Victoria Harbor, downtown Nathan Road, numerous high-rise buildings, endless traffic and crowds... This overlooking Hong Kong scenery can immediately be understood Taking the audience closer to the city from a sensory perspective.
▲ "Cold War" movie screenshots
Another Hong Kong flavor of "Chilling" is reflected in the political color throughout the film. From the struggle between the top police officers and establishments, it comprehensively decrypts and analyzes Hong Kong's police law. System .
Although Hong Kong as "Asia's safest city" is much less famous than Hong Kong as "the world's financial center", as a small and small place, it can truly focus on "citizens" Students, this is the main reason why Hong Kong is respected around the world.
Several clips in the film show Hong Kong's justice and democracy, such as the top police officers' firm choice between police safety and citizens' right to know, as well as their principled insistence on the use of authority;
Andy Lau friendship When the guest-starring Secretary of Security answered questions from reporters, he showed the press freedom of "you can ask anything";
and the impressive Independent Commission Against Corruption investigator played by Lee Chi-ting asked Aaron Kwok: "Hong Kong taxpayers' Where did the more than 50 million go? "... The plot dialogue can reflect the respect of the Hong Kong system for the rights and interests of citizens.
In short, if you have feelings for Hong Kong movies and love plots and action movies, you must not miss this "Chilling".
The Grand Master / 2013/ Douban 8.1 points
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Screenwriter: Zou Jingzhi / Xu Haofeng / Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung / Zhang Ziyi / Zhang Zhen / Song Hye Kyo / Zhao Benshan
Type: Plot/Action/Romance/Biography
"The Grandmaster" is hailed as the best kung fu movie in recent decades.
The film takes the martial arts in the north and south as the background of the story. It spans more than half a century from the early Republic of China to the post-liberation period. It begins with Wing Chun Master Ip Man after he went to Hong Kong to recruit apprentices. It tells the changes in the connotation of various martial arts and shows The magnanimity and demeanor of the four major martial arts masters: Wing Chun direct, Baji happy, Bagua flexible, Xingyi sophisticated...
▲ An epic martial arts masterpiece directed by Wong Kar-Wai, co-starring Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, Song Hye Kyo, and Zhang Zhen , Yuan Heping served as the martial arts director
As a martial arts film, in addition to fierce fierce kung fu showdowns, Song Hye Kyo and Zhang Ziyi showed femininity sharpness and tenderness in the film, which contains Wong Kar-wai's Unique aesthetic charm and unique ultimate beauty.
At the same time, the 10-year production time made "The Grandmaster" set the record as the slowest in Wong Kar-wai's film history.
As the saying goes, slow work makes the most of careful work. Before the filming of this film started, Wong Kar-wai spent three years visiting the martial arts world. He interviewed more than 100 hidden martial arts masters among the people, and even cast major roles such as Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, and Zhang Zhen a few years before the filming started. "Apprentice and learn skills from a teacher" to meet the needs of the role.
▲ Zhang Zhen even participated in the Bajiquan competition and won the first prize because of his martial arts skills. Everything here shows that Wong Kar-wai has carefully crafted and honed his Kung Fu ambitions for many years
Wong Kar-wai once said that in his heart, this film The goal of the film is more ambitious than simply telling the life story of "The Grandmaster" Ip Man: he also hopes that through "The Grandmaster", he will comment on the unhealthy trend of advocating materialism that he has seen in contemporary Chinese culture.
"In the past 30 years, China has gone through a lot of changes, and martial arts is basically a tradition that is declining. This is something that really affects me. In the past 30 years, because no one paid attention, there were too many The value has been lost."
▲ There is still a Wing Chun academy in Hong Kong that teaches Kung Fu, but there are more foreign students.
There is a saying in the movie, "Take a breath and light a lamp. There will be people if there is a lamp. ". Throughout the article, the spirit of never forgetting has been inspiring people in our new era to not forget the tradition and continue to work hard.
How to choose whether to stay or leave in the great era, and how to pass on the martial arts from generation to generation? I believe this is not only a reflection on martial arts, but also the persistence of the older generation of Hong Kong filmmakers in film production.
The success of the film is due to the overall view created by Wong Kar-wai. When Japan invaded China, the various factions fighting between the north and the south finally stopped arguing.
Ip Man said, "In fact, the world is so big, not only the north and the south. Trying to be perfect is tantamount to being complacent. In your eyes, this piece of cake is a martial arts world. To me, it is a world. As the saying goes, only with flaws can progress be made. If it really works, Nanquan is more than just a Northern martial art. "
In the past ten years, Hong Kong has been facing the struggle between the North and the South. The differences between China and Hong Kong have been very painful, but Wong Kar-wai has opened up a wide-angle lens of martial arts harmony.
In other words, Hong Kong entities can not only stand out as a family and have their own style, but they should not only see the confrontation between the north and the south, but should also face the world.
Walking on Blood to Seek Plum Blossoms / 2015/ Douban 7.5 points
Director: Weng Ziguang
Screenwriter: Weng Ziguang
Starring: Aaron Kwok / Spring and Summer / Bai Zhi / Tan Yaowen / Jin Yanling
Type: Drama/Suspense/Crime
This Hong Kong film was the big winner at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards, winning 13 nominations and winning 7 awards.
▲ Spring and Summer as Wang Jiamei
"Blood in Search of Plum Blossoms" is an excellent suspense crime film, based on the real corpse murder case in Hong Kong. Due to the large number of bloody nudity scenes in the film, it was designated as a crime film in Hong Kong. Category III film.
The prototype heroine of the movie is Wang Jiamei, a girl from Hunan in the Mainland.. In 2008, at the age of 16, she was killed and brutally dismembered due to paid dating. Before her death, she revealed to her client, "I want to die."
Wang Jiamei was originally a junior high school student with excellent academic performance. According to police investigation, she had a disagreement with her stepfather and did not want her mother to make a living by scavenging, so she took the initiative to drop out of school in 2008 to find a job to support her family.Wang usually likes to make friends online and make friends with older people. After her disappearance, the police identified the suspect through her last contact person on her mobile phone, a 24-year-old man named Ding Qitai... "Human Barbecued Pork Bun" is also adapted from a real criminal case at the Eight Immortals Hotel.
"On Blood in Search of Plum Blossoms" is based on real-life themes. However, the movie does not follow the routine of ordinary criminal cases and treats the story as a suspense detective film. Instead, it is based on Starting from the perspective of psychological suspense , we try to explore another angle of this appalling dismemberment case.
Why did that girl say she wanted to die? Why would the murderer who met her for the first time help her die?
The film is divided into four chapters: Looking for Plum Blossoms, The Lonely Man, Walking on Blood, and The Room with a View.
The audience can clearly understand the victim and the perpetrator from the very beginning. The truth that the policeman played by Aaron Kwok has been pursuing is not who killed whom, but why. When he put himself into the psychology of the two people and asked himself, he got a glimpse of the common ground between the two, which is also the chapter title of the film - loneliness .
Wang Jiamei and Ding Zicong are both marginalized people in society , exchanging their bodies for a moment of warmth in a loveless world.
Director Weng Ziguang portrays the brutal murder as the sympathy between two lonely souls who are both in the world, but they come to a bloody ending because of a wrong step.
The movie deals with the relationship between people very objectively and wants to explore the hidden truth behind complex social phenomena, thus eliciting the inner loneliness of an immature girl.
Wang Jiamei is a low-class person from the Mainland who came to Hong Kong. She is trapped in a house with no view all day long. Her adolescence was lonely and broken, which is also closely related to Hong Kong's economic development and environmental changes.
Compared with the anxious life of modern Hong Kong people who are breathless under the pressure, Hong Kong in millennium movies is mostly a land of dreams.
▲ In the movie " Sweet Honey ", aspiring young people come to Hong Kong from the mainland to seek job opportunities
▲ Today, more than 220,000 people in Hong Kong still live in the criticized coffin houses
Looking back, everything They are all subtly affecting people's lives, affecting both mainlanders and Hong Kong people.
The big tree attracts the wind / 2016/ Douban 8.1 points
Director: Xu Xuewen / Owen Jie / Huang Weijie
Screenwriter: Long Wenkang / Wu Qiwei / Mai Tianshu
Starring: Lin Jiadong/Ren Xianqi/ Jordan Chan / Huang Guangliang / Jiang Haowen
Type: Action/Crime
This movie defeated " Chills 2" and won the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards Best Film , starring Lam Jiadong, Simon Yam, and Jordan Chan co-starring.
The production of the film is very special. Three directors of and filmed three characters respectively, and finally the film company edited the three stories into a complete movie.
▲Look at these veteran actors, the Hong Kong flavor is coming.
The film is adapted from the real story of . In addition, in the film, Hong Kong is about to return to , which gives people a real sense of the times and melancholy. .
The three people in the story allude to the three "prominent" thieves in Hong Kong in the 1990s, namely Zhang Ziqiang, Ye Jihuan and Ji Bingxiong.
They don't just stop after a few cases. They are equipped with heavy guns and continue to commit crimes with ruthless and sometimes brutal methods. Each case causes a sensation in Hong Kong. In the end, of course, no one can escape the fate of being arrested, imprisoned, or executed. Crimes deserve punishment, and evil deeds are punished.
▲ The Three Thieves in Hong Kong
The film uses a cross-narrative method, with three stories interspersed in turn and developing sequentially. "Tree Catches the Wind" contains a large number of real-life scenes shot in old areas, which evokes many imaginations and impressions of Hong Kong films of the past.
Just like the first scene in the film, Ji Zhengxiong was intercepted by patrol police on the street. After a round of harassment, the ordinary patrol turned into a brutal shooting.
When a police officer was shot dead in the street by a thief, the citizens must have been more heartbroken than they are now.
▲ Video and reality, a thief holds AK-47 Hong Kong in the 20s
The intention of the first scene of "The Big Tree Catches the Wind" is not simply to make the audience feel "heartbroken", but to arouse the audience's memory. This happened in Hong Kong. This shows that these three thieves are anything but simple.
▲ The real person Ye Jihuan robbed King Fook Jewelery Store in 1988. He fired dozens of shots at the police on the street and then at the ambulance. There were no mobile phones at that time, but their criminal process was used by citizens on the building. Captured by a camcorder
What is little known is that "Tree Calls the Wind" is actually a proving ground for the cooperation of many rookies. The behind-the-scenes team includes many film graduates from colleges and universities. This is all thanks to the film production company Galaxy Image In recent years, we have actively promoted cooperation between the film industry and academia.
Filmmaker Johnnie To's efforts and actions in cultivating new blood in the Hong Kong film industry are worthy of respect. I wonder if young people can inject fresh blood into Hong Kong films in the new era under such opportunities.
Some people always say that Hong Kong society is indifferent to people and the atmosphere is oppressive. However, the editor believes that Hong Kong's rules and legal system make it difficult to show people's feelings, but it is people-oriented. In fact, it is cold on the outside and warm on the inside.
This city has its iron-blooded and serious side, but also its softened romance, and down-to-earth efforts have won over many short-term inspirations.
Hong Kong will continue to forge ahead amidst changes. Let us wait and see in the next 25 years.
text | Skylar
editor | Skylar
