Original title: Touching the "pain point" of reality and reaching the "cool point" of the public — — A Review of The Bitter-tongued Lawyer
Wen Yi Yin Hong (film critic, vice chairman of China Film Association)
Special feature of 1905 film network It tells the story of lawyer Lin Liangshui, a single mother who is deeply involved in the abuse of women, fighting back against the powerful Jedi and defending the final dignity of the law.
The film’s release in the mainland has aroused widespread concern. First, it has created the highest box office record in the history of Chinese films in Hong Kong, China, breaking through the pattern of Hollywood films dominating the Hong Kong market in recent years; Secondly, it is a legal drama that is different from the popular types of Hong Kong movies, such as martial arts, police and bandits, action and gangs. Literary drama movies can become the most popular movies, which shows its unique value and charm. Thirdly, this is a breakthrough work by a well-known "talk show" actor in Cantonese. Its success has made many expecters get their wishes, and strangers have made new discoveries.
As a Chinese-language film set in Hong Kong’s society, law, life and characters, The Poisonous Mouth Lawyer will inevitably have some so-called "cultural discounts" and "cross-cultural losses" when it is shown in the Mainland, but its vivid characterization, accurate narrative rhythm, smooth image presentation and full comedy texture, especially its shouting for social fairness and justice, will certainly arouse the mainland audience’s recognition of the film stories and characters.
The courage of "literary drama" lies in the characters. The uniqueness, freshness and vividness of the characters should be the premise for the film to gain the recognition of the audience. Legal themes are not uncommon in Hong Kong film and television dramas. But in this film, Lin Liangshui, a barrister played by Wong Tze Wah, is different from those well-dressed and domineering lawyers. On the one hand, he is arrogant, on the other hand, he is cynical. At the beginning of the film, the comic and exaggerated court judgment, which was delayed, made his character’s personality take the lead. However, in the vicious judgment speech, there was a sharp hatred and discrimination, which laid the foundation for the subsequent transformation.
When Lin Liangshui, like other lawyers, tried to praise the "smelly feet" of the rich and enjoy the worldly life of being drunk, he did not expect to be kicked to the ground by the "smelly feet" and sent an innocent woman to prison by mistake. On the one hand, it is the torture of conscience, on the other hand, it is also the humiliation of self-esteem. Lin Liangshui has to cross the rubicon and fight back, thus winning the final "face" for himself and the law. This character is gradually injected with the motivation of individual behavior from a low starting point, which is similar to the narrative strategy of Song Youshuo, a Korean film-making lawyer who was all the rage that year. This image, from defect to height, from waste to hero, has successfully completed the image of a lawyer who is unruly but still has a conscience and righteousness.
It is this tension that makes the characters grow and change radian, and has the fireworks of life and the diversity of personality. At the same time, it also brings a sense of life interest and comedy that the audience can easily accept and get close to. At the same time, Lin Liangshui’s dramatic conflict with other characters also had a solid foundation, and Jin Yuanshan, as his opponent in the prosecution and defense, finally had the condition of "turning around" under the inspiration of the bottom line of justice. Affinity, vividness, motivation coherence and transformation arc together constitute the narrative charm of characters.
Of course, the biggest reason why this work can become a "best-selling film" is that it sharply touches on the common topic of society: social justice represented by legal justice. Zeng Jieer, a former model in the film, became a victim of self-protection in the rich circle in an accidental misfortune, from a "doll" to an "insulted and damaged" helpless and helpless victim woman. Although this story is not new, it can be said that it has given new meaning to the "old topic" in the current social ideological trend of paying attention to social fairness and justice after the great development of globalization and capitalization.
More and more people feel the explicit and invisible social privilege brought by the expansion of power, and even become legal privilege. People’s dissatisfaction with this kind of social privilege, hierarchical solidification and huge inequality under superficial equality has been seen frequently in recent years’ film and television works such as Clown, Parasite and Squid Game. At this point, The Poisonous Tongue Lawyer can be said to have touched the common pain point of public concern.
If only the "pain point" is revealed, The Bitter Lawyer is still a film with limited audience and serious social issues. In fact, this film is a genre film that brings excitement to the audience with its "cool point". As a legal drama, there are many court debates in the film, but these debates are not only the inquiry and defense of the case, but also the questioning of social inequality, the accusation of legal injustice and the condemnation of human injustice. These sharp, sharp and cold statements, although not necessarily in line with the possibility of debating the real scene in court, make the film climax again and again, and the audience is surging with emotion.
The climax of the whole film is Lin Liangshui’s roar at the final trial: "In the past, everyone said that everyone was equal before the law; Nowadays, everyone has changed his mind and said that the poor are dead before the law. I will see who will die today. " In the end, the "just" ending of the prosecutor’s lawyer’s rebellion, the plaintiff’s becoming the defendant and the jury’s great reversal filled the audience with the pleasure of victory. In this sense, the film is a "legal" film that lets the audience vent and be happy. It leads the audience to get a "fair" satisfaction with an "unfair" incident.
In the audio-visual presentation, the film maintains the modern rhythm of the film and some comic exaggerations with fast and smooth editing, but it insists on the zero degree of "words only" in artistic style, without intentional spectacle display, luxurious big scenes and even plain camera language.
Although the choice of this film style may be related to cost control, it also fully shows that the audio-visual presentation of the film serves the story, the characters, the emotions and the theme. Showing off your skills is sometimes necessary, but it is not necessarily necessary. As the producer of the film said, the most fundamental thing of the film is to tell a good story.
Of course, as mentioned above, The Poisonous Lawyer is a highly completed commercial genre film, and the genre film’s "routines" constitute the underlying logic of its story. The long-standing comedy style of Hong Kong films adds "kindness" to its "serious" theme, and many scenes of the court are also rendered without the "real possibility" genre.
Therefore, judging "The Poisonous Lawyer" by serious realistic film standards, obviously we can find a series of so-called "slots". However, if we regard it as a legal film that touches the "pain point" of society and releases the "cool point" of public psychology, we may not be entangled in the boundary between "reality" and "fiction". It is a kind of "hypothesis", which brings the audience a collective carnival to scream for fairness and justice.
New film viewpoint
Special fund support for national film industry
