Since the first English film "The Great Wall" (2016) by the director Zhang Yimou, "Shadow" (2018) has been produced for many years, but in the past two or three years, the director's production has been intensive. After the completion of "One Second" (2020), two genre films "Snipers" (2022) and "Cliff Walkers" (2021 were successively shot. The latter was the first to be released on the May 1st Labor Day schedule in 2021.
Since Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (2002) 19 years ago, genre films have been provoking his creativity from time to time In fact, as early as the early days of his debut, he directed the action film "Codename Cougar" (1989), and the success of "Hero" has an intention to break out of a genre, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden. "Cliff Walkers" as his first wartime spy film, also has an attempt to break through the limitations of the genre. In addition to the texture of live-action shooting as well as the carefully conceived pictures and mise-en-scene, he divided the two male protagonists of the film into the upper and lower half of the film, this is also where many people criticize the film.
The concept of "Cliff Walkers" originated from the original novel "Horvat Street" by screenwriter Quan Yongxian, and was later adapted into the TV series "The Cliff", which was released in 2012, starring Zhang Jiayi and Song Jia. In Harbin during the puppet Manchuria period, the agent Zhou Yi played by Zhang Jiayi was lurking in the Secret Service Section of the National Police Agency, fighting wits with his superiors Gao Bin and Japanese military police, which was very popular. The name of the novel comes from the main street in Harbin, namely the current Zhongshan Road, formerly known as Horvat Street, which commemorates the Tsarist general Dmitry Horvat who built the Chinese Eastern Railway when Harbin was under the jurisdiction of Tsarist Russia. This old street has long been completely changed, but the film has created this old street that many Northeastern Chinese miss, which is also one of the selling points and features of the film. The film takes place in 1934 and is a prequel to the TV series. Zhou Yi is replaced by Yu Hewei, but the first part of the film is to explain the process of the four-member group "Utrennya" (meaning dawn in Russian) entering Harbin. The opening scene, the four of them were parachuted over the snowy forest in the northeast of China, and an overlook shot, quite pleasing to the eye. The plot follows the four people from the snow to the train to Harbin. Zhang Xianchen played by Zhang Yi and a new generation of "Zhang's actress" Liu Haocun play Xiao Lan, and the other group is Qin Hailu who plays Zhang Xianchen's wife Wang Yu and Xiao Lan's boyfriend, Zhu Yawen, palyed by Chu Liang. The two groups of people on the train, fighting with the agents of the Secret Service, from the rhythm of the plot to the details of the script, are a good example of a wartime spy movie. However, when Zhang Xianchen pretended to be a secret service officer to defraud another pair of passengers for the tickets, he got off the train separately from Xiao Lan, obviously creating an action scene for Liu Haocun to show off her skills. But this delicate girl, despite how hard she tried to perform, was still unconvincing, especially when she was surrounded and shot between the tracks, but did not alert other personnel, and managed to escape into the city smoothly.
For this "Zhang-actress", Liu Haocun in "One Second" played a wild child who went to snatch the film with the actor Zhang Yi for his younger brother. It was quite eye-catching. In addition to Zhang Yi's full-strength performance, the film was well received. However, when Zhang Yimou returned to genre films, he was once again criticized by various parties. This phenomenon has not escaped this "doom" from the "flashy" of "Hero" in that year to the "luxurious decoration" of Cliff Walkers this year. This has something to do with Zhang Yimou's artistic directorial style, which is too deep-rooted. When he handles genre films with his personal style and ability, there are no more or no less in order to break through or break down the routines and barriers of certain genre films. To be able to "reach the standard", breaking the routine becomes disrupting the rhythm of the film, breaking the norm becomes deliberately stacking, and the concept comes first. "Cliff Walkers" is obviously rhythmic and fails to achieve a coherent effect, especially Zhang Xianchen's arrest, followed by Zhou Yi's identity revealed; followed by Wang Yu and Chu Liang's explanation of how to release the opponent is fake, which involves the opening scene in an execution scene at that time, Xie Zirong, played by Lei Jiayin, was sentenced to change, and later on the train, he deleted the secret code Zhang Xianchen left to Wang Yu. Unfortunately, Wang Yu knew her husband's thoughts very well, so it was certain that the connector was an enemy pretending to be. In fact, as the first half of a wartime spy film, the layout, details and character design are quite good. Until Zhang Xianchen was arrested, Zhou Yi stepped up to the "front stage" and returned to the paradigm of the TV series "The Cliff". Is this Quan Yongxian or Zhang Yimou's intention? The change of tune, a bit disrupted the rhythm of the film. Followed down, Zhou Yi and his boss Gao Bin (played by Ni Dahong), Yu Aile, Jin Zhide (played by Li Naiwen) and Lu Ming's offensive and defensive battle. Among them, Zhou Yi and Xiao Lan wanted to deliver operational intelligence at the Asia Cinema, which was already famous in China at that time, and was showing the classic Charles Chaplin's film "The Gold Rush" (1925) on the screen, also the most classic bread dance scene, it can be said that it took a lot of effort.
The secret operation in the film is to save the survivor Wang Ziyang who escaped from the Beiyinhe experimental site. This part is the only real-life element of the film. This experimental site is the predecessor of the famous 731 Army experimental site. The Beiyinhe experimental site was established in 1932, also known as Zhongma City, because the captain in charge was called Zhongma (Nakama). In September 1934, Wang Ziyang led more than a dozen people to escape the testing ground, and in 1936 exposed the atrocities of the Japanese army at the Comintern. Wang Yu and Xiao Lan went to the Bulgarian consulate to escape Wang Ziyang from Harbin. Why did the Bulgarian consulate appear under the control of the puppet Manchuria? In fact, the Bulgarian government at that time was a regime allied with Nazi Germany, and it was liberated as an ally of the former Soviet Union after World War II.
The scene in the consulate, the chase scene between Qin Hailu and Li Naiwen, can still maintain the standard, but the completion of this task is not as thrilling and dangerous as expected. This film will inevitably be compared with "The Message" (2009) directed by Chen Kuo-Fu and Gao Qunshu 12 years ago. If it is evaluated in the genre of a wartime spy film, "The Message" is quite complete from the structure to the film. Some comments pointed out that Zhang Yimou put the focus of "Cliff Walkers" not on the task, but on the human nature of the characters. In particular, Zhang Xianchen and Wang Yu were looking for their lost children. In the end, Zhang Xianchen sacrificed, and Zhou Yi fulfilled his last wish and sent the children back to Wang Yu. Perhaps, this is the director's intention, but unfortunately, genre films have a certain degree of norms, unless you completely smash it to pieces and then rebuild, or do some kind of major surgery within the framework, it will disrupt its pattern and rhythm, affecting "Cliff Walkers" is an excellent example of the overall performance of the film.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
Since Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (2002) 19 years ago, genre films have been provoking his creativity from time to time In fact, as early as the early days of his debut, he directed the action film "Codename Cougar" (1989), and the success of "Hero" has an intention to break out of a genre, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden. "Cliff Walkers" as his first wartime spy film, also has an attempt to break through the limitations of the genre. In addition to the texture of live-action shooting as well as the carefully conceived pictures and mise-en-scene, he divided the two male protagonists of the film into the upper and lower half of the film, this is also where many people criticize the film.
The concept of "Cliff Walkers" originated from the original novel "Horvat Street" by screenwriter Quan Yongxian, and was later adapted into the TV series "The Cliff", which was released in 2012, starring Zhang Jiayi and Song Jia. In Harbin during the puppet Manchuria period, the agent Zhou Yi played by Zhang Jiayi was lurking in the Secret Service Section of the National Police Agency, fighting wits with his superiors Gao Bin and Japanese military police, which was very popular. The name of the novel comes from the main street in Harbin, namely the current Zhongshan Road, formerly known as Horvat Street, which commemorates the Tsarist general Dmitry Horvat who built the Chinese Eastern Railway when Harbin was under the jurisdiction of Tsarist Russia. This old street has long been completely changed, but the film has created this old street that many Northeastern Chinese miss, which is also one of the selling points and features of the film. The film takes place in 1934 and is a prequel to the TV series. Zhou Yi is replaced by Yu Hewei, but the first part of the film is to explain the process of the four-member group "Utrennya" (meaning dawn in Russian) entering Harbin. The opening scene, the four of them were parachuted over the snowy forest in the northeast of China, and an overlook shot, quite pleasing to the eye. The plot follows the four people from the snow to the train to Harbin. Zhang Xianchen played by Zhang Yi and a new generation of "Zhang's actress" Liu Haocun play Xiao Lan, and the other group is Qin Hailu who plays Zhang Xianchen's wife Wang Yu and Xiao Lan's boyfriend, Zhu Yawen, palyed by Chu Liang. The two groups of people on the train, fighting with the agents of the Secret Service, from the rhythm of the plot to the details of the script, are a good example of a wartime spy movie. However, when Zhang Xianchen pretended to be a secret service officer to defraud another pair of passengers for the tickets, he got off the train separately from Xiao Lan, obviously creating an action scene for Liu Haocun to show off her skills. But this delicate girl, despite how hard she tried to perform, was still unconvincing, especially when she was surrounded and shot between the tracks, but did not alert other personnel, and managed to escape into the city smoothly.
For this "Zhang-actress", Liu Haocun in "One Second" played a wild child who went to snatch the film with the actor Zhang Yi for his younger brother. It was quite eye-catching. In addition to Zhang Yi's full-strength performance, the film was well received. However, when Zhang Yimou returned to genre films, he was once again criticized by various parties. This phenomenon has not escaped this "doom" from the "flashy" of "Hero" in that year to the "luxurious decoration" of Cliff Walkers this year. This has something to do with Zhang Yimou's artistic directorial style, which is too deep-rooted. When he handles genre films with his personal style and ability, there are no more or no less in order to break through or break down the routines and barriers of certain genre films. To be able to "reach the standard", breaking the routine becomes disrupting the rhythm of the film, breaking the norm becomes deliberately stacking, and the concept comes first. "Cliff Walkers" is obviously rhythmic and fails to achieve a coherent effect, especially Zhang Xianchen's arrest, followed by Zhou Yi's identity revealed; followed by Wang Yu and Chu Liang's explanation of how to release the opponent is fake, which involves the opening scene in an execution scene at that time, Xie Zirong, played by Lei Jiayin, was sentenced to change, and later on the train, he deleted the secret code Zhang Xianchen left to Wang Yu. Unfortunately, Wang Yu knew her husband's thoughts very well, so it was certain that the connector was an enemy pretending to be. In fact, as the first half of a wartime spy film, the layout, details and character design are quite good. Until Zhang Xianchen was arrested, Zhou Yi stepped up to the "front stage" and returned to the paradigm of the TV series "The Cliff". Is this Quan Yongxian or Zhang Yimou's intention? The change of tune, a bit disrupted the rhythm of the film. Followed down, Zhou Yi and his boss Gao Bin (played by Ni Dahong), Yu Aile, Jin Zhide (played by Li Naiwen) and Lu Ming's offensive and defensive battle. Among them, Zhou Yi and Xiao Lan wanted to deliver operational intelligence at the Asia Cinema, which was already famous in China at that time, and was showing the classic Charles Chaplin's film "The Gold Rush" (1925) on the screen, also the most classic bread dance scene, it can be said that it took a lot of effort.
The secret operation in the film is to save the survivor Wang Ziyang who escaped from the Beiyinhe experimental site. This part is the only real-life element of the film. This experimental site is the predecessor of the famous 731 Army experimental site. The Beiyinhe experimental site was established in 1932, also known as Zhongma City, because the captain in charge was called Zhongma (Nakama). In September 1934, Wang Ziyang led more than a dozen people to escape the testing ground, and in 1936 exposed the atrocities of the Japanese army at the Comintern. Wang Yu and Xiao Lan went to the Bulgarian consulate to escape Wang Ziyang from Harbin. Why did the Bulgarian consulate appear under the control of the puppet Manchuria? In fact, the Bulgarian government at that time was a regime allied with Nazi Germany, and it was liberated as an ally of the former Soviet Union after World War II.
The scene in the consulate, the chase scene between Qin Hailu and Li Naiwen, can still maintain the standard, but the completion of this task is not as thrilling and dangerous as expected. This film will inevitably be compared with "The Message" (2009) directed by Chen Kuo-Fu and Gao Qunshu 12 years ago. If it is evaluated in the genre of a wartime spy film, "The Message" is quite complete from the structure to the film. Some comments pointed out that Zhang Yimou put the focus of "Cliff Walkers" not on the task, but on the human nature of the characters. In particular, Zhang Xianchen and Wang Yu were looking for their lost children. In the end, Zhang Xianchen sacrificed, and Zhou Yi fulfilled his last wish and sent the children back to Wang Yu. Perhaps, this is the director's intention, but unfortunately, genre films have a certain degree of norms, unless you completely smash it to pieces and then rebuild, or do some kind of major surgery within the framework, it will disrupt its pattern and rhythm, affecting "Cliff Walkers" is an excellent example of the overall performance of the film.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)