The Viral Factor 《逆戰》was the latest transnational feature of Hong Kong action film director Dante Lam Chiu-Yin (林超賢) released in 2012 January. It is a routine action film produced by Dante Lam just akin to his previous works like The Stool Pigeon《綫人》 (2010) and The Beast Stalker《証人》(2008). The pattern of plot is usual, the main characters, Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒)in The Viral Factor, got involved in a troublesome matter that might harm families or their lives, thus they had to finish to certain tasks to deal with the problem, and often the death of characters awaken audience to reflect the faith of human nature.
Similar to Dante Lam’s previous works, in The Viral Factor, shootout and explosion are the majority scenes filmed to define its action genre, and to identify the shooting style of Dante Lam. The shooting style of Dante Lam since its first work Option Zero 《G4特工》(1997) ingrained and constituted in audience expectation, the selling point of Dante Lam’s works is action scenes. Although Dante Lam once filmed romantic story Tiramisu《戀愛行星》 (2002) and Love on the Rocks 《戀情告急》 (2004), his image of an action film director is still rooted. Not surprisingly, The Viral Factor largely fulfill the expectation of audience by spending up to HK$200 million to set the plot in Malaysia and explode and shoot a lot in this exotic country. As Dante Lam comment on his work The Viral Factor in an official interview, it extended the limit of space and constituted consistent scenes of chase and action. All elements he craved in an action film are embodied in The Viral Factor. The unconditional support of local government undoubtedly is the appealing factor attract Dante Lam to film in Malaysia when compare with the strict regulations in Hong Kong. Actually, there are slightly change of action scenes Dante Lam filmed in The Viral Factor, when the shootout and explosion of The Stool Pigeon or The Beast Stalker is confined in a limited arena, the explicit spacious geographic environment in The Viral Factor is more desirable.
Actors, from Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智) to Nicholas Tse, are also routine in Dante Lam’s work. In The Viral Factor, Liu acted as a compulsive gambler who finally died for Tse. Tse and Chou were separate brother who were placed in an extreme boundary- police and criminal. As usual, Dante Lam tends to explore human nature through depicting the internal conflict of characters. In the previous works of Dante Lam, the boundary of “good” and “bad” is very distinct. However, in The Viral Factor, the theme focusing of “chose” is represented. In the film, the conflict between Tse and Chou is still the essence in the plot. Dante Lam attempted to blur the binary by reinforcing the powerless of Tse, Liu and Chou. Chou was a member of international security unit but chose to be a criminal just to rescue his family. Tse was a criminal but he was still considerate of his family members and even willing to sacrifice himself to save Chou. The exquisite performance of Liu also touches and leads audiences to reflect what exactly differentiate human nature between good and bad.
Li Tsz Kwan, Ava 10380273/20855569
A detailed examination of different aspects of the selected film, with a brief study on the director’s previous work in uncovering his established styles and techniques. You also did a good job in investigating the production context of the film, which provides some important institutional as well as socio-historical information.
ReplyDeleteI love your point on the blurring boundaries between the traditionally established oppositions. The film marks a significant contribution to the blurring between truth and falsehood, good and evil (i.e., authorities can break the law while criminals are sympathetic). You may wish to relate these cultural connotations to the local consumption context and discuss the possible reasons for such a change.
The review has made some critical reflections on the local music industry and star system, which act as a solid base for analyzing the selected “popular” song. Some important theoretical concepts (e.g., nature of cultural industries, key components of star text) are nicely discussed with your own point of views.
ReplyDeleteIn fact every star (even unpopular or very typical one) has some visual, verbal and aural signs signified by his/her image. The associated connotative meanings are not necessarily unique and positive, but they are just by-product of star system. In the case of Raymond Lam, the predominant image of “chok” actually refers to a social phenomenon with cultural significance. What kind of qualities does it signify? Why do we condemn this particular style of expression?