Detective and Magic Police

A few years ago, it was seen from some reports that Wei Jiahui's new play would be named "The Detective War", which did not feel like a movie worth looking forward to. That's because I've watched his works for many years, and my past experience has taught me that "Battle of the Century" will not be better than "The Big Era", and "Single Men and Women 2" will inevitably exhaust everyone's goodwill towards "Single Men and Women", In fact, I am a little afraid of his behavior of responding with new works or deconstructing old works, because sometimes it is better than playing a good theme to make people feel at a loss.

Despite this, I have experienced a very difficult life that I have not seen a few years ago, and many attachments and prejudices may have been put down long ago. I started to appreciate Liu Qingyun's performance from "Senior Brother Xinzha" and supported it for decades. It is rare for him to return In cooperation with Wai Ka Fai, in fact, as long as I have the opportunity to go to the cinema, I will definitely buy a ticket to enter.

Before entering, I tried my best not to read the previews and comments. I only knew that "The Detective War" was a brand new story, not a sequel to "The Detective" co-directed by Wei Jiahui and To Qifeng in 2007. In fact, I didn't have much fondness for "The Detective" and Andy Lau's "Blind Detective" later, mainly because I didn't like the director to emphasize an idea over and over again, and the idea that everyone has several personalities in his heart speaks volumes. Nor is there any profound truth. On the contrary, I admire Wei and Du's "Drug Wars" filmed in the mainland. They filmed the oppression of the sinister human heart and the confrontation between the police and the bandits. They also grasped some intriguing contradictions, and found new ideas in the many restrictions. Unfortunately, this kind of almost The creation of brushing the ball can only be done occasionally, and it is impossible to delve into it with the changes of the times!

Speaking of "The Detective War", the evaluation has been polarized since its release. People who like it have recently renamed Wei Jiahui the "God of Screenwriters". The audience who can't accept this kind of unrestrained creative style directly denounced it and scolded the film for nothing. The value, the extreme word-of-mouth, is really breathtaking. In fact, viewers who are familiar with Wei Jiahui know that he has always been good at screenwriting. Most of his successful works are co-directed with To Qifeng. With his amazing ideas and To's excellent skills, he has created many classics. The works he directed, except for the early "" The Birth of a Prefix is just as grotesque and absurd as "Peace Hotel", "Himalayan Star", "Rhapsody", "Favorite Woman Shopaholic", and "Rebirth" all have their own shortcomings and obvious shortcomings. Therefore, I should not have high expectations when I enter the theater to watch "The Detective War". Perhaps because I lowered my expectations, I found a lot of surprises when I watched the movie. First of all, the production investment of this film is very large, and there are many action scenes. The scale is close to the "Rage" directed by Chen Musheng. Then there is the case after case this time, starting from some famous and mysterious cases in Hong Kong. At the beginning, the audience is pressed step by step not to let the audience think, forcibly pushing everyone into a world that belongs to the detective. What surprised me even more was that the film seemed to be investigating a case on the surface, but in fact, the creator used the topic to express various inconvenient messages.

In this world of detectives, superficial evidence is not credible, official conclusions are always absurd, black and white can be reversed at any time, people with power are both low-minded and incompetent, only in-depth investigation, stripping the cocoon, and substituting into the perspective of each party, Perseverance detectives have the opportunity to find out the truth of each unjust case. But since there are detectives in this world, there must be demon policemen. The bad guys in the police force have always been a classic part of Hong Kong films, and the so-called "Detective War" is simply the ultimate showdown between the detective and the demon police for a long time. Every episode of the movie is very urgent, Liu Qingyun keeps urging others to investigate the case, and keeps telling new clues, there is no moment to calm down, the audience is faced with such an explosion of information Of course, it is very easy to bear the situation, can't bear it, and even think that Wei Jiahui is out of control. But if you think about it a little deeper, this movie has such a huge investment, and it must be released in the mainland to be able to make a return. However, the film's original filming of the policeman and the butcher can easily be regarded as a sensitive subject. Because of this, the second half of the movie fell into a frenzy. Chaos, the ending is reversed and reversed, and Liu Qingyun was still arguing during the shootout, making the plot from suspenseful to absurd. While watching the movie, I was thinking, if all this chaos is in their calculations, wouldn't it be a new kind of dark crossing?

Rather than being angry at the lack of the film, I would like to see clearly what Wei Jiahui wants to express with such a large scale this time? The two most obvious questions that come to mind at the moment are: Does it make any sense? If the truth is only up to the powerful, who else can avenge the weak? In addition to looking for clues in the details of the plot, it is said that the propaganda statement of the movie poster also revealed some information, such as:

No one is immune to the judgment of the soul

How many sins are in the name of justice?

The game of good and evil is not a final word

All the way forward into the light or the abyss?

In the hustle and bustle, someone is always speaking for the truth

The most evil devil, most like to dress up as an angel

These propaganda statements point out the theme of the movie to a certain extent, while Wei Jiahui has expressed some messages that can only be understood and cannot be expressed after several turns. Under this premise, "The Detective War" is different from his previous works. The content of the discussion More serious, it also hints at some of the unique imprints of this era. What exactly is meant by "great evil is like righteousness, and great good is like evil" emphasized in this film, maybe different people will have different understandings after watching the film. For friends who like Suoyin, there are many strange cases in this movie, different versions of the case-solving plots, and even a certain dialogue in the film. It is possible to interpret various things that are meant to be beyond words, which coincides with the world of detectives. You can't just look at things on the surface.

It is worth mentioning that the investment and production of this film are all handled by Emperor Entertainment, not produced by Galaxy Video, so except for Liu Qingyun and Li Ruotong, all the actors who participated in the film are Emperor's actors. Liu Qingyun's state of bravery and his god-level acting skills in interpreting multiple personalities are absolutely admirable. Even people who are completely disgusted with "The Detective War" probably cannot deny his wonderful performance. But it is a pity that the level of the opponent is too far behind him. No matter how hard Lin Feng, Chen Jiale, and Tang Yi work, it is difficult for them to match the former actors such as Lin Jiadong, Lin Xue, and Lin Xilei who had a tacit understanding in Galaxy Video, so Liu cooperated with these juniors. Giving a sense of incompatibility, even Charlene Choi has lost the look of her heyday. I think this disparity in power is the main reason why the movie makes many viewers feel uncomfortable. But if you like to explore the new ideas reflected in Wei Jiahui's creation, "Detective War" is still worthy of attention.