In 2017, Wong Jing enabled Andy Lau and Donnie Yen to make the crime film "Chasing the Dragon".
After the release of the great success, the audience stained, directly washed away the "Macau Wind and Cloud" full of mud, the mainland box office of 577 million, so far Douban rating is as high as 7.2 points.
Well-received and well-received, this is the highest peak of Wang Jing in recent years, but also proved that this former box office dominator treasure knife has not aged.
Some people say that 'Chasing the Dragon' can be fire, in fact, it is the unprecedented arrangement of 'Lame Ho' and 'Lui Lok', the two Hong Kong characters, caused the superimposed legend, but also evoked the memory of the 90s Hong Kong film.
The success of the script naturally deserves a lot of credit, but on a practical note, Chasing the Dragon is actually not the first time that Lame Ho and Lui Lok have been arranged together in a movie.
Wong Jing, the genius of the movie, tried to do it a long time ago, but it was more focused on the plot, and the characters weren't as clear as they were in Chasing Dragons.
And the word-of-mouth on this movie is strangely polarized.
This movie is the 1999 O Memory of the Triad Files, written, produced, and masterminded by Wong Jing, and directed by Fok Yiu Leung.
For me, outside of admiring Wong Jing's venomous and sophisticated capturing of the subject matter, the only thing I remember is that:
This movie is just too unkind to Zhu Yin.
Like Chasing the Dragon, the movie features two main characters: Ho (Lau Ching Wan) and Lok (Francis Ng).
Hong Kong in the 1960s, under the colonial jurisdiction of the police and the black collusion, the social order collapsed, in the midst of this pandemonium, the Kowloon Walled City is the most sinister.
But Ah Hao and Ah Lok are happy to be there.
Because they believe that the Kowloon Walled City is 'colorful and fun', every day people lose their money, but every day there are also people who have made it to the top.
In this chaotic world, they also harbor heroic dreams.
However, their personalities are worlds apart.
Ah Hao mercenary and cunning, playful and lustful, not only in the casino and the lotter 'bold Ying' eye to eye, but also by cutting off the radio, cheating running the horse dealer's prize money, full of yearning for the gangster life.
And Ah Lok is upright and kind, but cowardly and reticent, always pulling Ah Hao afraid that he will go astray.
The two of them meet when they are in the middle of a gangster's life, but they are not sure if they are going to make it to the top.
But on the day of the date, Lok and Ho are attacked by their rivals and surrounded in the aisle.
Ah Hao is able to climb up to the roof and escape, while Lok is taken home by his enemies.
Ah Lok is beaten in turn, waterboarded by the vapor, and forced to eat poop ....
Ah Hao, who escaped with his life, is on fire to find Bold Ying, a casino housekeeper who has had a previous encounter with him.
She is the sister-in-law of the boss of the Walled City, 'Fat Po', who was able to come out and save Ah Lok after Ah Hao's desperate solicitation.
After this battle, Ah Hao heart of the restless heart completely inspired, he thinks that to be a man should be the same as Fat Po, to be the big brother to really stand.
What his uncle said to them points out the theme of the movie: "If you want to get rich in Hong Kong, you either have to be a soldier or a thief"
To be a thief, you need to be like Fatty Bowie, who does everything he can, and to be a soldier, you need to be like Inspector Tam. ' Like 'Inspector Tangang,' he uses public power for private purposes and harbors hidden gold.
The 'Tam Kong' here should be mapped to 'Blue Kong', once one of the four great Chinese detectives.
In short, after this, Ah Hao made his goal clear: to be a thief.
Ah Hao three words to the bold Ying captured to the hand, bold Ying for his knees to untie, indescribable ....
And Ah Lok signed up to be a film police.
The plot starts to dogpile here, and Ah Hao, who became a gangster, is still best friends with Lok, and doesn't fall behind in his wingman duties for Fei Fei.
Only instead of falling in love with Lok, Fei Fei falls in love with bad boy Ho.
At a dance, Fifi and Ahao get closer and closer, and Ahao, driven by alcohol, takes Fifi's 'first time' in front of Lok and Daring Ying.
Originally, this is nothing but a dog blood love story, but on the contrary, Fifi's mother could not make ends meet, and sold her daughter's 'palace sand' to Fat Po long ago.
Fat Bao found no red after the end of the matter, scolded Fei Fei cheating, fists and feet.
And Fei Fei, in order to avoid responsibility and dare not involve Ah Hao, even dumped the pot on Ah Lok, saying that Ah Lok raped her...
This, being cuckolded but also take the blame, honest people who invoke who.
Unsurprisingly, the unlucky man, Ah Lok, was arrested again and begged for forgiveness to no avail.
In the end, Fatbot pulls out a fire cracker and castrates Lok.
A Lok is really miserable.
And then Ahao arrives and saves Lok and Fifi by swallowing charcoal, and promises to fulfill them by arranging their marriage.
Fifi is then delivered to Lok by Ahao.
Lok knew the whole story, but never blamed Ah Hao.
Later, Lok, who had lost his dignity, finally saw the light, learned to take bribes, and learned to kiss ass.
And Ahao is more and more intense, defeated the rivals beat the peers, spread across the board to become a dominant party.
However, because Ah Lok can't do that, Fifi is like a bird in a cage, and there is always someone in her heart: Ahao.
At Ahao's wedding, Fat Po was killed in an accident by Ahao and Lok's resistance, and after Fat Po's death, Ahao's road to the top became wide open.
In order to rise to the top, Ah Hao helps Lok to buy a position as an inspector, and Lok is gradually lost in this flattery, and becomes just like Ah Hao, tending to the trend.
Later, Ah Hao and Lok are like two parallel lines of black and white, rocketing up to monopolize half of Hong Kong.
But Fifi still hasn't stopped being a demon, and has been fornicating with Lok's subordinate, Lard Boy (played by Tse Tin Wah), who is discovered by Ah Ho and beaten up by him.
As a result, Lard Boy turns against Faye and turns on the two, and Faye accidentally dies at Lard Boy's hands.
At the end of the movie, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is in full force.
Lok picks up a pistol and wounds Ho's leg in order to rush out and kill himself, giving Ho a chance to survive.
1. O Mark
The 'O Mark' in the film's title actually refers to Hong Kong's anti-triad unit, the Triads and Organized Crime Division.
The 'Triads' are self-explanatory, almost an umbrella term for the Chinese triads, and their predecessor was the 'Tien-Di Gang' during the Qing Dynasty, which originated in 1674, and then branched out into the 'Hung Gar Kung Hui' (洪門).
The first Chinese triad was the Tien-Di-Gang Society, which originated in 1674 during the Qing Dynasty and evolved into the Hung-Men Society.
Named 'O Memory Triad Files', Wong Jing actually wanted to make a gangster epic like Johnnie To's 'Triad Society', but despite borrowing from 'Once Upon a Time in America' and 'The Godfather', the epic feel of the film was not reflected.
2, Poe Howe and Lui Lok
"O Memory" is a standard double-hero story, with the double male lead 'Ah Hao' mapping Ng Sai Ho, and 'Ah Lok' being the half-billion dollar detective Lui Lok, of sorts. the earliest movie to put two characters in the works.
However, the motivations and moods of the characters do not hold up to scrutiny.
Many people are surprised why Wong Jing wrote Lok as a good guy throughout the movie, and never retaliated against Ho, who repeatedly hurt him.
According to the formula of double-crossing and police procedural, the two protagonists will surely turn against each other in the middle and latter part of the film, and then sublimate at the end, whereas in "O", Lok carries a heart of righteousness that persists until the end of the film, and Ah Hao also recognizes his own rashness and arrogance in making mistakes over and over again and repents for his mistakes.
The film's perspective is too limited, showing only the righteousness of the two men and skimming the surface of the changing times and deceitfulness.
While designing the storyline, the movie repeatedly breaks the expectations of the audience. This anti-climax design is avant-garde, but it is the unchanging righteousness of Lok that is being presented.
It's just a bit deflating and lacks a sense of drama.
3. Wong Jing's Private Goods
Moreover, Wong Jing gave all the characters that stimulate conflict to 'Fifi', played by Zhu Yin.
This character was in love with vanity in the early stage, framed Ah Lok after fornicating with Ah Lok, poked Ah Lok's backbone in the middle stage, and repeatedly wanted to make peace with Ah Lok, and then fornicated with Lard Boy in the late stage, and was finally killed by her lover by mistake.
Even after being caught in the act of adultery, she still lit up a cigarette with aplomb, what she wanted was not love, but the thrill of betrayal.
Ah Hao and Ah Lok in the road of life, smooth sailing, through the past to destroy, only to write all the contradictions pen ink to 'Fifi'.
Behind this is perhaps Wong Jing's obsession with "love Y play".
The film is full of 'X-suggestions', big obscure lines and salacious sequences, and even though Zhu Yin and Peng Dan don't have any large-scale images, they're just as erotic under Wong Jing's design.
Although Zhu Yin had already begun to act in "love Y movies" in the late 90s, this time the persona and scale.
I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it's a good idea to have a good time with this movie.
Even though "O" is a far cry from "The Triad", it was given a different meaning in the special year of 1999.
Behind the haphazard and random approach is a true reflection of the 80's and 90's Hong Kong cinema, which was "all crazy, all over the top". In O, you can still see its magnificent creativity, wild plot design, and self-confident subjective expression.
Among them, Wong Jing let Wu Zhenyu play the role of a kind-hearted unlucky boy, while Liu Chingyun became a reckless hero, which is enough to see the Hong Kong director on the subversion of the traditional habit.
Perhaps it's because of this that "O Memory" is so sought after.
-- End of full article.