Personal opinion | “Anger · Serious Case”: You can always look forward to the tension between the black and white duo |

Original Title: Personal Opinion | “Anger · Serious Case”: You can always look forward to the tension between black and white duo

This article contains a lot of spoilers, please read as appropriate.

On July 30th, director Chen Musheng’s posthumous work “Anger and Serious Case” was screened in theaters. According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, as of 21:55 on July 31, the box office of the film exceeded 150 million. The Douban score also reached 7.8, and the audience gave enough enthusiasm to this action movie.

Judging from the plot alone, the story of “Rage and Serious Case” is very conventional: during the police’s anti-drug operation, a masked bandit suddenly slaughtered all the drug dealers and police officers. During the investigation, Zhang Chongbang, an upright policeman who followed the procedures and justice, discovered that Qiu Gangao, a former friend of the police force, was the mastermind behind the scenes. In an operation many years ago, Qiu Gangao and other members of the same group violently extorted a confession under the acquiescence of the boss in order to save the hostage of the wealthy businessman. However, in the court, the wealthy businessman and the boss who feared to take the responsibility bite back and gave testimony in the court. It was Zhang Chongbang who convicted Qiu Gangao and others.

The antagonism between good and evil, the setting of black and white duo, and the stage of reflection on the system are already the most commonly used creative motifs for audiences who are familiar with Hong Kong films, and they seem to be somewhat routine. However, the story structure is only a part of the movie, and the audiovisual language and character images are the highlights of “Rage and Serious Case”.

From “Heavenly Love” to “The Stormtrooper’s Rage on the Street” to “Baby Project”, Chen Musheng’s ability to control large-scale action scenes is always amazing. In “Rage: Serious Case”, the action scene of the big scene once again constitutes the elements that make people adrenaline soaring: chasing cars in the streets and alleys, roaring and exploding in the ears, and superimposing the fist to the flesh designed by Donnie Yen, and the real fighting, which brings Strong visual impact.

For example, in the street fighting at the end of the film, Qiu Gangao and his accomplices broke through the lower layers of police containment by Zhang Chongbang and other police. The grenade exploded, the gun battle between the two sides and the final close fight. The whole fighting process was completed in one go, with a great sense of rhythm and mature footage. The scheduling makes the audience seem to be immersed in the scene constructed by the film, and the shock of the scene is hard to describe in words.

In addition to the shocking audiovisual language, the full character image is also the highlight of the film. The film gives the villain Qiu Gangao a very complex and deep personality, which is also expressed through a series of details in the film.

Whether director Chen Musheng prefers Qiu Gangao more is unknown, but the mad villain in “Rage: Serious Case” seems to be more sympathetic to the audience, because he not only has the blood of killing, but also bears the residual arc of humanity. . For example, when forcing the boss who had framed himself in the past to carry a bomb and tell the camera that he did the wrong thing in the past, a tear slipped down Qiu Gangao’s face. At that moment, the indestructible bandit finally showed a trace of fragility and regret when he was grieving.

On the other hand, Qiu Gangao’s full character image is also inseparable from Zhang Chongbang’s mutual contrast. During the confrontation scene in the interrogation room of the police station, it was learned that the pregnant wife had been threatened by a bomb. “Mr. Good” such as Zhang Chongbang also hit the equipment in the interrogation room, revealing a violent side of his character, and the brutal and tyrannical Qiu Gangao There seem to be similarities.

After the exhausted battle at the end of the film, a large number of police arrived. The red dots of the sniper rifle were all over Qiu Gangao’s body. He stood on the broken platform of the church and asked Zhang Chongbang: if he was to force a confession that day. The task is for you, whether our destiny will change, and then fall backward and fall into the arms of the Virgin and choose to break it on its own. The contrast between madness and divinity is just like the contrast between Qiu Gangao and Zhang Chongbang’s righteousness and evil. The last one seems to indicate that in a certain sense, the two will return by different paths—you and I are fellow travelers, and Qiu Gangao is Zhang Chongbang’s “evil” side. Zhang Chongbang is the “good” side of Qiu Gangao.

Where did you go wrong? Combining the plot of “Rage and Serious Case”, the answer may be bureaucracy, collusion between officials and businessmen, or legal guilty determination procedures… The answer is not certain, but it is certain that here, the black and white duo represents The exploration of the boundaries between good and evil and the “gray zone between black and white” emphasized in the film can be extended infinitely. In this sense, the audience can look forward to the tension between the black and white duo infinitely.

Unfortunately, when the protagonist Zhang Chongbang heard the question from his former friend, Zhang Chongbang did not show the slightest movement on his face. This indifference may have shaped Zhang Chongbang into a firm hero, endowed him with an absolute justice personality, but also suppressed the growth of the character, and also pulled the proposition of the whole film from the level of reflection on the system back to personal choice. The ambiguity between the writers is somewhat compromised, and the contrast between the black and white duo is also weakened.

In general, the shortcomings of the plot falling into a stalemate in “Furious Cases” are inevitable, but the mature scheduling of large-scale action dramas and the precise depiction of the details when shaping the characters are enough to be worth the price. In the summer of this rare action movie, this movie is worth watching.