During the Spring Festival in 2024, the film market will be extremely competitive. In this context, a Hong Kong police movie "Breaking the War" quietly debuted, but unexpectedly became a dark horse at the box office at the beginning of the year - not because of its superiority, but because of its fiasco. The box office on the first day was only 160,000, the film quickly became the focus of public discussion, but the content of the discussion was a complaint about its quality.
Directed by veteran editor Pang Fa, Breaking the War stars Hong Kong film heavyweights such as Ng Chun-yu, Tang Man-lung and Yam Tat-wah. With such a production team, it stands to reason that there should not be such inferior works. However, the truth is surprising - the Douban score is only 32 points, becoming the lowest-rated movie since the beginning of 2024.
The movie tells the story of a rich man who takes revenge on his wife. Five years ago, a construction accident caused the main character, Xiaohu's girlfriend, to become a vegetative state. For five years, Xiaohu took care of his girlfriend while planning revenge.
His revenge plan includes intimidation of the CEO of a listed company, a mysterious disappearance, etc., and every step seems reasonable but outrageous. In order to make revenge look more reasonable, the director even set up a "Batman"-style identity for Xiaohu.
However, as the plot develops, the problems of the film are gradually exposed. The special effects are rough, the plot is fragmented, and all the staff are intelligent.
Although the film spends a lot of space laying out the main line, it ends up rambling and not a single clue is clearly explained.
The villain killed eight people for his wife, but what are these people guilty of?
And what is wrong with the people who were killed in the bombing at school?The movie just seems to be constantly taking revenge and killing without any in-depth **.
In the end, the director had to forcibly end the story, making Xiaohu's vegetative wife wake up suddenly, and she was able to gain insight into everything with a few pieces of news, accusing Xiaohu of becoming a serial murderer. Such an ending makes all the previous plots ridiculous, and the 86-minute movie seems to have become a mistake.
Comment: The future of Hong Kong Film is in**?
The failure of Breaking War is not just a failure of a film, but a microcosm of the crisis facing the Hong Kong film industry. In the past, Hong Kong films attracted countless audiences with their unique styles and stories, but nowadays, it seems that more and more Hong Kong films are falling into the predicament of creative exhaustion and declining quality.
The film's failure reminds us that no past is a guarantee of future success, no matter how glorious it may be. The Hong Kong film industry needs to reflect deeply and find a new creative direction and a way to survive. Only by continuous innovation can we regain the hearts of the audience and let Hong Kong films regain their brilliance on the world film stage.