"Wisdom Teeth " is one of the two Hong Kong movies that the author is most looking forward to in recent years, the other one is "风林山". This movie, which was filmed in 2018, is finally here. It is a long-lost Hong Kong movie craziness and a long-lost dark apocalypse. After watching it, I was shocked and had mixed feelings.
The production team of "Wisdom Teeth" can be called luxurious. The director is Cheng Baorui who has a very personal style. He is best at shooting crime themes. The behind-the-scenes team are all great stars of Galaxy Image. The producer is Wilson Yip. The screenwriter is Ou Jian'er , and the art designer is Mak Guo-qiang . The hell-like scenery was created by him, which greatly improved the quality of the movie. The soundtrack of this film is Kenji Kawai, and the starring roles are Lam Jiadong, Liu Yase, Li Chun and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (the Japanese general in Ip Man 1).
This film was selected for the "Special Screening" section of the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of the year. It has since been favored by major film festivals around the world and has gained great attention overseas.
What kind of story does "Wisdom Teeth" tell?
Rotting urban corners, out-of-control limbo, and life like garbage. On one side is rapid evolution, on the other side are out-of-touch ants. Prosperity and filth, scarcity and alienation, despair and hope, all coexist. The morbid city leads to morbid human nature. A series of twisted madness, bloody killings, and tragic fates were staged one after another on the psychedelic rainy night in Hong Kong. In the crazy steel jungle, how should sick people face each other?
This film is adapted from Remi's novel of the same name. The original novel is a dark story that took place in an urban-rural fringe area. Cheng Baorui transplanted the story to the fictional Hong Kong city - a more complex environment, a more twisted human nature, a wetter climate, As an international city, Hong Kong is geographically the juncture of the enlarged version. All of this has given the movie "Wisdom Teeth" a comprehensive upgrade at the story level.
To deeply understand this film , it is best to start from the two aspects of "macro urban ecology" and "microscopic character struggles" . This involves director Zheng Baorui's consistent theme of expression and the image of the Milky Way that has a huge influence on him.
一: Zheng Baorui and Galaxy Image
Zheng Baorui first started with Lam Lingdong, so he also inherited the characteristics of paying attention to social issues in Lam Lingdong's movies, and his portrayal of the violence and darkness of human nature is particularly brilliant.
html In 2005, Zheng Baorui filmed " Monster ", creating a mother monster who hides in the elevator shaft of a building and steals children; in 2006, he filmed " Dog Eat Dog ", Edison Chen and Li Cansen staged a battle between man and beast. "The Battle for Survival", these are the two most authorial films of his early period, and "Wisdom Teeth" is an extension of this line.
Later, he was appreciated by Johnnie To and joined Galaxy Image. He worked with Wilson Yip for many years and produced "Accident" and " Kill the Wolf 2", etc., which have obvious Galaxy Image style.
Galaxy Image is a label co-founded by Johnnie To, Wei Jiahui, You Dazhi, and has brought together a group of unique Hong Kong film elites. As the last famous brand of Hong Kong films, Galaxy Image has always been known for its "cold, hard, dark and ruthless" style, and its photography and soundtrack are also very stylish.
We can see many tributes to Galaxy Image's classic films in the story of "Wisdom Teeth", such as "Detective", "PTU", and "Dark Flower". This story can be regarded as a summary and upgrade of Zheng Baorui's style and Galaxy Image.
The pathology of metropolitan society, the alienation and alienation of interpersonal relationships, the bloody violence at the bottom and the pure goodness of human nature are the themes that Zheng Baorui has always paid attention to. , "Wisdom Teeth" covers all of the above.The fatalism that often appears in the galaxy image and the torture of faith are also integrated into the story.
2: Title design of the film - setting the tone and refining the connotation
The complete title of "Wisdom Teeth" is: Wisdom Teeth LIMBO. The word "wisdom teeth" is shrunk to one side, and the English word "LIMBO" composed of ants takes up the largest space.
English LIMBO means: The border of hell, a place where discarded objects are placed, or an uncertain state in between. In the Christian context, limbo refers to the temporary destination of the souls of people who do not believe in Christ after their death, waiting for the savior to come and save them.
And what kind of group are ants? They are a group of thoughtless individuals. They are crowded together without any emotional communication. They just live mechanically based on animal instincts, and are most easily attracted to rancid smells. The most indispensable thing in Limbo is garbage and rancidity.
The title design of "Wisdom Teeth" accurately positions and expresses the harsh ecology of the metropolis and the living conditions of the characters . From the macro to the micro, it covers everything Zheng Baorui wants to say, setting the stage for the entire story. keynote.
As long as you understand the overall design of this film, you will not go astray when interpreting specific characters.
As for the connotation of the word "wisdom teeth" in the title, we will reveal it at the end.
Three: Out of Control - The Long Night of Despair in Hell Border
Finally came to the plot. The whole film is a relatively regular three-act drama: the first act will show the relationship and conflicts between the four protagonists Zhan Ge, Ren Kai, Wang Tao, and the murderer. In the second act, the two main lines gradually merge. Brother Zhan's violent revenge against Wang Tao is a personal grudge, and the police's pursuit of the murderer is a social responsibility. In the end, the out-of-control bloody violence shattered all official and private matters, and everyone collapsed; in the third act, Brother Zhan and Ren Kai regrouped and raced against time to save people until the decisive battle on a rainy night.
The most exciting and energy-intensive part is the second act - the long night of loss of control. The films under Galaxy Image are very good at making "out of control" movies: maximum emotions, total explosion of conflicts, the most intense violence, and the bloodiest scenes that push the characters to collapse.
Kawai Kenji used religious ravings to give the dilapidated neighborhood where fish and dragons were mixed a layer of hell. The air was filled with a violent atmosphere. Under the cover of nightthe order of society and the order of human nature were all out of control . The police, drug dealers, Wang Tao, and drug-addicted women were chasing each other desperately on the same block. On one side was the most intense massacre, and on the other side was the quietest manhunt. The murderer was an unknown entity, lurking in the night like a ghost, disappearing without a sound. Devour life.
Brother Zhan, played by Lin Jiadong, has the most close-ups in the movie. Every micro-expression on his face can withstand careful reading. His acting skills are already superb.
Wang Tao, played by Liu Yase, has received the most praise. There must be emotional points, but she also performed very well. Her innocence and weakness, her fear and desire to survive when she suffered violence, were all performed very delicately. Liu Yase's big eyes make Wang Tao look particularly innocent and innocent, but she has experienced the most intense violence and purgatory-like torture, and can be called the most tragic female character in the Chinese film industry.
Ren Kai, played by Li Chun, suffers a bit in character, because the film focuses entirely on Zhan Ge and Wang Taona, but his performance is nothing to say. He is out of place at the beginning, on the verge of collapse in the middle, and selfless at the end. The interpretation is very layered and the future is promising. Moreover, he also carries one of the most important metaphors in the film - wisdom teeth, which we will talk about at the end of this article.
Finally, let’s talk about the murderer.
People who have watched this film are dissatisfied at two points: 1. There is no god-level reasoning and no reversal in the process of solving the case, which is not satisfying enough; 2. The murderer’s history is not clearly explained.
This movie adopts a realistic style, mainly reflecting the alienation of human nature and extreme living conditions , without those fancy "god-level reasoning, deceit and cleverness". Various criminal information is gradually gathered and summarized with the rhythm of the film, and it makes sense to be rigorous and logical.
As for the history of the murderer, it is indeed unclear , which weakens the logic of the murder to a certain extent, which is quite regrettable. The author thinks there are two reasons for this:
In terms of character setting, the murderer, as an alienated and even degenerated monster , can no longer be considered a human being, so his history as a human being will naturally degenerate, leaving only one Photos of Zhang’s mother serve as spiritual support for living.
Secondly, the murderer is Japanese and believes in the incomplete Virgin Mary. This Eastern + Western identity setting should be a metaphor for the invasion and impact of foreign cultures on Hong Kong culture. This is difficult to explain, so this part It's the most obscure thing to say.
"Wisdom Teeth" is a very high-quality movie. The overall design and detailed interpretation are very particular. The character creation/performance is layered and logical. The excellent audio-visual perfectly sets off the decaying and psychedelic atmosphere of the city. It is very good. The metaphors about the state of the world and people's hearts are also quite sharp . I hope that friends who have not read it must carefully read it before drawing conclusions, and don't listen to other people's nonsense.
4: Three shots in the arm for dying Hong Kong movies
After the new millennium, the decline of Hong Kong movies has become more and more obvious. Hong Kong movies have been called dead for many years, but they can survive until now because there are always excellent movies for them. Continue your life.
is like " Infernal Affairs " in 2002, "Underworld" in 2005, "Detective" in 2007, "Ip Man" in 2008, " Chill " in 2012, "Equator" in 2015, In 2018, "Wushuang" also included co-productions such as "Slaying the Wolf", "Poison War", and "The Grandmaster", all of which were well-received and well-received movies. These movies are like a shot in the arm, injecting new vitality into Hong Kong films.
As for the three recent shots in Hong Kong films, I think they are , "The Bomb Disposal Expert 2", "Wisdom Teeth" and the unreleased "Wind Forest" .
"Bomb Disposal Expert 2" is an unexpected surprise. The first part was mediocre, but the second part was unexpectedly more powerful. It can be seen that Hong Kong film veteran Qiu Litao is still good at it. As a living fossil of Hong Kong movies, Yau Litao is even more crazy and over-the-top than Cheng Po-sui. In his early years, "Human BBQ Pork Buns", "Ebola", " Taxi Judge ", etc., they were all shocking CUIT films.
In "Bomb Demolition 2", Andy Lau, who has always been sunny and upright, also shows his crazy and dark side. Isn't the "throw away" utilitarianism an urban pathology? And this character's pursuit of self continues. It explores the lost theme of "Infernal Affairs" and vividly displays the "anxiety" of Hong Kong people.
In this regard, "Demolition 2" and "Wisdom Teeth" are similar, but "Wisdom Teeth" is bolder and more straightforward. Zheng Baorui conducted an anatomy of the decay and decay of the city, nakedly presenting the filth, and conveyed the rotten smell to the audience with the help of Brother Zhan's keen sense of smell. The despair brought about by this collapse is even more shocking.
Mai Junlong 's "Feng Lin Huoshan" has been delayed for too long, longer than "Wisdom Teeth", and there seems to be no news yet.The author hopes that it will be more shocking and better than "Wisdom Teeth". After all, everyone is looking forward to the snowy Hong Kong...
Finally: What is the meaning of wisdom teeth?
Wisdom teeth obviously have symbolic meaning in the film, and the most intuitive feeling they give people is "labor pain". This kind of pain comes from "anxiety". It will be anxious when things are not going well, when you are frustrated, when you are afraid, or when you want something that is not available.. Everyone in the film has their own obsessions. Brother Zhan is obsessed with revenge, Wang Tao is obsessed with self-salvation, and the murderer is obsessed with abnormal maternal love. They are all elusive but unobtainable, and they all paid a huge price for it.
According to traditional saying, the growth of wisdom teeth signifies wisdom, which also means the loss of innocence and the beginning of utilitarianism. The pursuit of lost innocence has always been one of the themes of Zheng Baorui's films. The innocence of the child in "Monster", the love and kindness of the mentally retarded woman in "Dog Eat Dog", the warmth of the wife, the understanding and forgiveness of people in "Wisdom Teeth", Mother's care and so on are the most essential beauty that people pursue.
Why did the director place the most symbolic wisdom teeth on Ren Kai? Because he is the most normal and closest to the real public. Brother Zhan, Wang Tao, and the murderer are all "higher than life". As every individual living in the city, how do we cope with the alienation brought about by the city, how do we face the fierce competition for survival, and how do we maintain the most essential beauty of human nature? These problems may be the wisdom teeth that trouble us.
If you want to overcome all the problems caused by urban pathology, it is not easy . Perhaps for most people, labor pain cannot be eradicated and can only be temporarily relieved.
The urban environment remains the same, and the border of hell remains the same. No one can guarantee that Ren Kai will not become Brother Zhan twenty years later. New crimes will still breed, and new Ren Kai and new Wang Tao will also appear. , Despair and hope coexist, this is the world of "Wisdom Teeth" .
