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“Abandoning Three Evils” tells the story of Chen Guilin, a former gangster who committed a crime and served his sentence. After being released from prison, he shot and killed his gangster brother at his farewell ceremony. After succeeding in the murder, he found that he was still only the “third most wanted” person. To commit. The seven emotions and six desires, love, hate, and resentment, if they are unrestrained, that’s fine, but obsession must never be allowed. Chen Guilin had the wrong idea to leave a name before his death, thinking that he could become the contemporary Zhou Chu to eliminate the three evils. He found out that his former The whereabouts of the two wanted criminals are known, and they must be eliminated one by one.
The official promotion of the crew of “The Three Evils” mentioned that the film combines “gangster revenge”, “crime”, “action” and other genres, and is also known for its unique “aesthetics of violence”. In fact, when I watched “Chow”, I felt that the film’s production team had a strong ambition to create “action” scenes that were different from previous Taiwanese “genre” movies. However, if we only talk about the uniqueness of its “violent aesthetics”, “action scenes”, “crime” and other types, although the final “violent aesthetics” murder scene seems to pay tribute to contemporary new action movies such as “Defense Mission”, northern and central Taiwan The “killing” process of tracking down the wanted criminals in Penghu, an outlying island, seems unprecedented in Taiwan’s “ganghu movies”, but the “aesthetics of violence” is not as good as other action movies from Asian countries. The presentation seemed too simple and intuitive, and even the entire scene involving police detective Chen Hui (Li Liren) seemed to remain in the depth of the trailer until the end, as if he was a character being laid out for the sequel. Huang Jingfu, who is from Hong Kong, has directed films such as “The River” (2004) and “Avenger’s Death” (2010), and has collaborated with well-known Hong Kong stars including Andy Lau, Sammo Hung, Eric Tsang, Jacky Cheung, Shawn Yue, and Edison Chen. In “The Weeknd” He has made seven feature films before, especially the cast management of “Arms and Lakes” and the bizarre plot of “Avenger’s Death”, which make people have deep confidence in Huang Jingfu’s ability to master style. In fact, the original story “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils” is like a “co-production” from Hong Kong heading west to China, which was affected by the censorship of the China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Although there is no interference from political forces in Taiwan, the story from the beginning to the end is… It has become the “warmthism” ending that has become popular in Taiwan in recent years. The final love confession scene of a visit to the pharmacist prison is reminiscent of the humanistic sentiments of “Sunshine”, the Golden Horse Award-winning best film directed by Taiwanese master Chung Meng-hong. Coincidentally, before making “Sunshine”, Chung Menghong was also cultivating genre style in films such as “The Fourth Picture”, “Lost Soul”, and “Bon Voyage”. Some people say that this ending is very similar to Lian’er who promised the protagonist’s grandmother to influence the protagonist Pei Gang in Li Xing’s “Autumn Jue”; Zhang Guiqing, the pharmacist responsible for taking care of Chen Guilin, took out X-ray films, making Chen Guilin mistakenly believe that his death was imminent. However, with great enlightenment, he turned around and “eliminates” the harm to the Venerables Lin Luhe (Chen Yiwen) and Hong Kong Aberdeen (Yuan Fuhua). Finally, when the day of arrest and execution arrives, the character of the pharmacist confesses his deception and the ensuing death. What inner realization does Chen Guilin gain?
Perhaps, this “warmth” ending is the “adjustment” of a genre film director from Hong Kong who once again looked for resources to cooperate with Taiwan after the “Go West” co-production was returned to Hong Kong. Therefore, we can also say that “The Three Evils” is indeed a clever “hybridation” synthesis beast. It combines the learning of Hong Kong films from Hollywood commercial films such as the “Defense Mission” series, but it also has Huang Jing. Just start your new life. During the New Wave of Hong Kong films, many action film directors absorbed elements from American and French genre films to create unique Hong Kong genre films, which have now even influenced the martial arts scenes in Hollywood commercial blockbusters. Now, once again, nutrition has come to Hong Kong movies that were once in crisis. Huang Jingfu has learned the operation of American commercial films, and also integrated the nutrients of Taiwan’s “warmthism”. Such a fusion indeed conquered many theaters during the week of release. audience. Now that it has been released for nearly a month, the box office is not as good as predicted. It has not yet reached 50 million, and it is far from recouping the money. Let’s look back and see that “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils” is obviously different from its origin story. “Zhou Chu eliminates three evils” is cited in “Shishuo Xinyu”. In the original text, in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, China during the Sun Wu era, Zhou Chu, who was “fierce and chivalrous”, and “dragons in the water” and “white-fronted tigers in the mountains” The three evils are parallel to the “three horizontals”. Zhou Chu was actually the son of Zhou Li, the prefect of the Sun Wu era. He killed the victims for three days and three nights, and “everyone in the village said he was dead.” They celebrated with hands and foreheads. Unexpectedly, he came back alive. When Zhou Chu saw the disappointed expressions of the villagers, he started to change his mind. Just like “Zhou” rewrote the ending of the original “Zhou”, the protagonist who should have lived to face his mistakes in the original story was “probably” executed in the movie, but Zhang Guiqing, the pharmacist who had confessed for him before, was It is an image from the mother image in Li Xing’s movie “Autumn Finale”. Ironically, the image of a mother from a movie during the martial law era was copied by a Hong Kong director from Taiwan’s popular “warmthism” and re-released to the people of the island country who are on the verge of a general election. What kind of “breakthrough” is such a genre milestone for a film that cannot recoup its costs and that Golden Horse is unwilling to encourage with a Best Picture nomination?
Just from the two related wave traditions of “Taiwanese New Cinema” and “Hong Kong New Wave”, we may not be difficult to conclude that the birth of “genres” and “waves” always originate from political or economic “crises”. Of course, filmmakers will always reflect the current political and economic situation of the society they are filming and living in in their films. Therefore, the innovation of “Zhou” may not be enough to satisfy the warning given to us by the fable “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils”: to face crises alive and face the past and future that we should bear. Therefore, “Chou” cannot truly respond to the current or past sources of the exact political and industrial (economic) crises of Hong Kong films, nor can it face the current business model crisis of Taiwanese films. If “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils” is indeed a new milestone in Taiwan’s domestic film genre, then we should really ask the following questions from the archeology of film history and film style, from the investigation of film plots, and the listing of film commercial literature: Whose defense mission is Chen Guilin’s “defense mission” this time? But, what about next time?
●Author: Shen Yixin/Film critic ●This article is the author’s opinion and does not represent the position of “NOWnews Today” ●”Today Square” welcomes contributions or participation in discussions. Please include your real name and contact number. Articles are welcome to be sent to: opinion@nownews. com
