In the past year, Aaron Kwok received a nickname given by netizens - the "most backing king" among the four kings.
What is "the back"?
With the halo of the Academy Award actor and the desire to revive Hong Kong films, the movements are bigger than the other, but the endings are more surprising than the other.
Last year, in February, the starring gangster blockbuster "When the Wind Rises Again" set off a storm.
Written and directed by Weng Ziguang, the top productions of Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung, and Xu Guanwen are gathered, from the cast to the costumes, they are all quite elegant.
Helplessly, limited by Weng Ziguang's overly freehand script and bland-like narrative, the audience was foggy and drowsy, resulting in a complete collapse of the box office, and finally only 49.04 million.
Less than a month later, Aaron Kwok's new work "Disconnected" made a blockbuster debut.
With the theme of online financial crimes, the visual look and feel is very similar to "Tron: War Chronicles".
But the core of the story is still the same set of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films, and the audience has long been tired of it.
The box office was a little better than "When the Wind Rises Again", reporting 64.88 million.
After that, the super Hong Kong film "Anti-Drug 3: The End of the World" starring Aaron Kwok was released.
Choreographed and directed by Qiu Litao, there are ** Yun and Gu Tianle in the starring roles, and the supporting roles are all familiar faces such as Yang Caiyu, Luo Jialiang, and Xie Junhao.
However, word-of-mouth continued to decline, and the Douban score was fixed at 55 points.
The only thing to be thankful for is that the box office is better than the first two, getting 28.4 billion.
After three consecutive hurdles, the pressure of ** fell on Aaron Kwok.
Some people say that he doesn't know how to pick dramas, and he makes films that are destined to be popular;
Some people questioned his acting skills, saying that he was an actor with a false name, and he was absent-minded when acting, just waiting to clock out and get off work.
What's even more tragic is that there is a ** number that dug out the ** that he danced on the show, and edited it with the dancing ** when he was young, mocking the former Asian dance king, who is now too old to dance, "like a toy that is about to run out of power".
Seeing that Andy Lau's momentum is getting stronger and stronger, he is so popular that he has to rely on him to carry the Spring Festival stalls.
Aaron Kwok, who has suffered heavy setbacks one after another, urgently needs to come up with a convincing work.
Not to mention recovering the lost ground, but the decline must be stopped.
While speaking, Guo Tianwang's "big test" is coming
Temporary robbery.
With almost no opponents in the same class, the film was released for 4 days and received 90 million box office.
But we don't look at the box office today, we only talk about the quality of the movie.
01, there are three main highlights of "Temporary Robbery".
"Temporary Robbery" is a small-scale movie with a unique style, and its outstanding highlights are three.
The first is "Guo Tianwang pretends to be ugly".
As the "lowest altitude" existence among the four heavenly kings.
Aaron Kwok has been in the entertainment industry for more than 40 years, and the foundation of his life is not only his singing skills, dancing skills, hard work and acting skills, but also his super good looks.
At his peak, even big names such as Leung Ka-fai, Andy Lau, Ekin Cheng, and Lin Zhiying had his hairstyle and imitated his image.
Since focusing on movies, Aaron Kwok has also been deliberately changing his image as he has grown older.
He cut the iconic "Aaron Kwok Head" to show people with a more hearty image;
Try different types of movies, create different roles, and hone your acting skills in your performances.
Over the years, Aaron Kwok has been deliberately "playing ugly".
For example, in "Treading Blood and Seeking Plum Blossoms", he plays the sloppy and unkempt policeman Zang SirThe madness of focusing on the investigation of the case, the persistence of revealing the truth of the case, and the compassion for the victim and the family are all well expressed in the unobtrusive body language.
In "Wushuang", Aaron Kwok plays the cunning head of the counterfeit money organization, Li Wen.
Beneath the obscene image, there is a lawless and bold crazy heart.
The film script is solid, firmly grasps the suspenseful style, and the truth is not revealed until the end, which makes the image of Li Wen, the villain, very plump, and is one of the more successful characters portrayed by Aaron Kwok.
came to "Temporary Robbery", Aaron Kwok was even more "to death" this time.
He installed himself with a pair of buckteeth, and a pair of "cauliflower ears", with strong muscles, and a tan, and his image is very capable.
He spoke with a pursed lips and a Vietnamese accent, similar to Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody.
In the trailer and short ** released before the release of the film, this bucktooth image is really eye-catching.
Plus hilarious action and"I ask you to go and rob, thank you", "We are bandits, not killers", "You rob me, I rob you, the number of pieces will come first".and other lines frequently**, which also attracted the attention of many netizens.
The second is black comedy.
The movie takes the rare route of a black comedy crime film in Hong Kong films.
According to the definition of producer Er Dongsheng:"This is an absurd crime Hong Kong film that is not very serious. ”
The main theme is "fresh", "special", and "interlocking", with the color of black humor and the proposition of human nature.
The best play in this style is the British director Guy Ritchie.
His masterpieces "Two Big Smoking Guns" and "Kidnapping and Robbery" both play the seriousness and self-defeating of people in the underworld, as well as multi-line narratives and unexpected coincidences, which are still talked about by fans today.
Ning Hao also imitated his style and made the famous work "Crazy Stone".
"Temporary Robbery" also adopts the mode of multi-line narrative.
In the film, the bandit Mei Lantian (played by Aaron Kwok) from Vietnam is resolute and decisive.
was put into the trunk of the taxi by the taxi driver Ah Yi (played by Lin Jiadong) by his pig teammates.
Therefore, he was involved with Ah Yi and Murong Hui (played by Ren Xianqi).
Murong Hui runs a home for the elderly, but owes a huge loan due to poor management, and is planning to buy a gun from the underworld first, and then use the gun to rob the bank.
By mistake, Mei Lantian, Ah Yi and Murong Hui formed the grass platform team.
In line with the rules of "I rob you, you rob me", I plan to rob the money of the underworld shrimp (played by Jiang David).
At the same time, the female police detective Sister Jiang (played by Zhang Keyi) has already locked the three of them;
The hairy thief Anan (played by Jiang Zhuowen) and his girlfriend Bingbing (played by Wang Songyin) are planning to escape;
The underworld profiteer Fat Fork (played by Lin Xue) is in prison for selling guns and fake passports.
The storylines of these large and small characters are connected to form a rather attractive gangster ukiyo-e.
The third is the shaping of the bottom down.
Mei Lantian, Ah Yi and Murong Hui represent the old men in the Hong Kong circle who are in a mid-life crisis.
Mei Lantian, who speaks Vietnamese and has a rustic accent, is a retired wrestler with a prominent record but no money, and in order to realize his wish to make money to buy a house with his son's watermelon, he took risks.
However, in fact, the watermelon has already died in a lightning accident, and Mei Lantian's persistence is just a sick obsession.
Ah Yi is a typical "strict wife".
The couple and their mother are crammed into a public house of less than 40 square meters, and the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is very tense.
Because his wife is waiting to give birth, the original house can't accommodate so many people, so in order to buy a new house, Ah Yi, who drives a taxi, is upset.
Murong Hui's wife died early, and he and his daughter depended on each other.
Originally, he had no family to worry about, but he was in debt because the old people's home he ran could not make ends meet.
When Murong Hui shouted that"When I'm old, I don't have 20,000 yuan.", the theme of the film is revealed.
Under the shell of comedy, it is a human story of "loss" and "pursuit".
02, who messed up this set of "S-level scripts"? Compared with "The Case of the Three Wolves", the result is very clear
Guo Tianwang pretends to be ugly" is a gimmick, black comedy is the style of the film, and mid-life crisis and human nature are the themes.
The movie story has gimmicks, the actors' acting skills are not bad, and the script is good.
It stands to reason that as long as you tell the story well, the possibility of becoming a hit is extremely high.
But judging from the audience's evaluation, the voice of criticism still occupies the mainstream.
The biggest problem lies with director Mak Kai-kwong.
Looking at director Mak Qiguang's resume, he debuted in the 90s and worked as an assistant director under famous directors such as Tsui Hark, Wang Jing, Chen Musheng, Er Dongsheng, and To Qifeng.
It wasn't until 2000 that Mak Kai-kwong directed his directorial work "Ghosts Play with You".
The only work that has more than 7 points in his career so far is "Time Backwards" in 2007.
Let's not talk about the resume, let's go back to the movie "Temporary Robbery".
On the whole, it can only be regarded as "half a good film".
The combination of the two "wastes" of the gangster Mei Lantian and Ah Yi and Murong Hui is very joyful; The multi-line narrative is also very innovative; And the gunfight scene was also well shot.
But in the second half of the movie, I can't stop it.
We all know that due to the strict censorship in the mainland, as a crime-themed movie, it can be very "wild" at the beginning and middle, and it must be able to be contained at the end, be "harmonious" enough, and preferably have enough educational significance.
Our mainland movies already have a set of methods to deal with them.
Hong Kong-made crime films have never been able to master the routines.
In order to make the movie have a "Hong Kong flavor", almost all police and gangster films have a good time at the beginning, and the process is smooth and good-looking, but when it comes to the closing stage, they begin to "show timidity".
I don't know how to tell the story, how to arrange the ending of the characters, and how to fill the pit dug in front.
The laziest way to deal with it is to let all the characters, no matter how big or small, good or evil, "arrange" them together by various coincidences, and finally let the "bad guys" get the bento in a chaotic shootout, and the "good guys" survive and have the last laugh.
Disappointingly, so does the ending of "The Temporary Robbery".
The three protagonists who were finally created at the front of the movie.
The violent but principled gangster Mei Lantian, the timid and mercenary Ah Yi, and the kind and righteous Murong Hui all have distinct images and a sense of intimacy.
In the end, it was labeled as "good" and "evil" like "archive".
Damn the death, the punishment that should be punished, so that the audience has no way to vent their breath.
We can also learn from those excellent old Hong Kong films in the past.
Let's take a Douban 73 points of "Strange Case" films to make comparisons, 1989 Mai Dangxiong and Huang Tailai's "Three Wolf Strange Cases".
Why pick this movie? Because "The Case of the Three Wolves" has a lot of similarities with "Temporary Robbery".
For example, the main characters are also three people; It's also a comedic tone; It is also a tragic story about a middle-aged man facing an existential crisis, taking risks for life, and finally embarking on the road of no return.
In the early stage of the movie, we focused on portraying the "Three Wolves" makeup artist Ma Ercan, driving instructor Deng Zijing and trading company waiter Li Huai, defining their characters as harmless and timid ordinary people who are afraid of things, so as to arouse the audience's favor.
Then the "three wolves" began to encounter all kinds of misfortunes in life, causing a "hatred of the rich" mentality, and boldly "trying" again and again, step by step towards the road of crime.
And the ending of the movie is very much in line with our "moral values", and it can pass the trial even now.
The "three wolves" were eventually brought to justice and sent to the gallows one by one.
The sharpest thing is that the movie presents the whole process of the three people from "waiting for death" to being hanged in a straightforward way, which shocks the audience.
Therefore, "The Case of the Three Wolves" is a thought-provoking theme under the shell of a crime comedy.
Compared with "Temporary Robbery", it is one step higher in character creation, the story is told equally smoothly, and the ending goes straight to the theme of human nature, which makes people unsatisfied.
As a 2024 movie, the level of storytelling is not as good as that of old Hong Kong films in the late 80s, and the regression of Hong Kong films can be seen.
03, this time, I really have to cry out for Aaron Kwok
At present, the box office of "Temporary Robbery" is more than 90 million in 4 days after its release.
Although the film schedule is very high, the average daily box office is not as good as "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" that has been released for almost a month! The stamina is also very weak.
Its box office will not exceed 200 million in the end.
Aaron Kwok did not hesitate to "pretend to be ugly", but what he was waiting for was such a work, which made Brother Pi feel sorry.
used to always say that Hong Kong films "don't work", there are only a few actors who come and go, the routines are old, and they don't know how to be flexible, which makes people not interested.
But over the years, we have also seen positive attempts and changes by Hong Kong filmmakers.
For example, "Tomorrow's War" is a science fiction film, "The Poisonous Tongue" is a legal film, and "The Corridor of Justice" is a serious suspense film, all with a well-crafted texture.
Let's talk about "Temporary Robbery", the starting point itself is very low, playing the flag of a low-budget black comedy.
The actors are all old actors, in addition to the three major actors, Lu Haipeng, Lin Xue, Wang Minde, and Bao Qijing are all funny.
The structure of multi-line narrative is not common in Hong Kong films, and the fatalistic ending "pays tribute" to Galaxy movies.
But in the end, it couldn't be contained, exposing the lack of screenwriter and director's ability.
There is also an embarrassing problem, that is, the movie stars who can afford to carry the "big flag" come and go, and these Hong Kong stars are not young.
Like Aaron Kwok, Lin Jiadong, and Ren Xianqi in this film, they are all post-60s, and the youngest Lin Jiadong is also 57 years old.
Jiang Zhuowen, who plays the little thief Anan in the film, and young actors such as Zeng Bit, ** Shen, and Liang Zhongheng, who are the little brother of the garage, are also remarkable.
What makes people wonder why these post-80s and post-90s actors don't get more opportunities to perform?
You must know that when the Four Heavenly Kings became popular, they were all young men in their early 20s!
We all say that we must "emancipate our minds and seek truth from facts", and this "eight-character mantra" is also applicable to Hong Kong films.
Since we are "seeking change", we must change boldly, and don't always play the "new wine in old bottles" set.
The first step is to let these "overage" movie stars take a back seat and give young people more opportunities.
It is necessary not only to have "gimmicks" that can attract the audience, but also to have "content" to retain the audience with a good story.
It is necessary to work the polishing of the script, turn out the old Hong Kong films of the era and study them carefully, absorb the "Hong Kong flavor" in them, and learn how to tell a good story.
Only in this way can Hong Kong films not enter a dead end, and future Hong Kong films can make people see the hope of revival.
Regardless of the final box office of "Temporary Robbery", Aaron Kwok did not lose this time.
Being able to create such a distinctive character can be regarded as a good start for 2024.
Andy Lau's full integration into the mainland market actually showed Aaron Kwok a way.
Maybe leave for a while and try to star in some mainland movies to open up the situation and get out of the current predicament.