Interpretation | Hong Kong director who almost went bankrupt braved the Spring Festival file with "Breaking the War"
Special feature of 1905 film network The 2024 Spring Festival file has entered the countdown. There are 9 films and 7 comedies, and the competition is fierce, competing for "king of comedy". With the opening of the pre-sale, all the publicity is in full swing, hoping to get the audience’s "first ticket" first.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, it seems a little low-key in many comedies. As the only crime action movie, it gives the audience more choices of movie types. As the only Hong Kong film, the luxurious starring lineup also represents the courage of Hong Kong films to fight the Spring Festival again.Choose the wrong peak setting, actively avoid competition with other films, or the film has other considerations.
Off-screen, for the director of the filmDanny PangGenerally speaking, Breaking the War means more.
On December 19th, 2023, Hong Kong director Peng Fa revealed that he owed HK$ 2 million for his wife’s medical treatment and declared bankruptcy because he could not repay it. Shortly after the finalization of "Breaking the War", on January 23rd, Peng Fa said in Weibo that the current financial crisis could be solved due to the development of new cooperative projects, and the earlier bankruptcy application could be withdrawn. This director, whose debut is the pinnacle, definitely has a place in the history of Hong Kong film, but after he went to Hollywood and went north to the mainland, the film quality was mostly less than expected, and he failed to continue to write the past glory.
The movie market and audience still have expectations for Peng Fa. What surprises can Peng Fa give us after the bankruptcy application is withdrawn? Can Broken War make him prove himself again?
The director’s dream of a talented editor
When it comes to Peng Fa, I have to mention his twin brother — — Another Hong Kong director. The audience and film critics called them the Peng brothers. Just like the Cohen brothers and Luc Dardenne in the world cinema.
They were born in the glorious period of Hong Kong movies. Since childhood, they have either watched movies or discussed ideas and stories, and they are looking forward to making these fantastic ideas into movies one day. At the age of 15, my brother Peng Shun found a S16 camera and made an experimental short film. This was the first time for the two brothers to be directors, and they wanted to be closer to the real movie.
Seven years later, Peng Fa became an editor, while Peng Shun focused on color mixing. They started from technical positions and entered the film and television industry for more than ten years.
In 1998, Peng Fa won the Best Editing Award at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards, which was his first prize. After more than ten years of hard work, he became a top editor in Hong Kong, and more importantly, he finally caught up with his brother Peng Shun.
At that time, Peng Shun was already a well-known colorist in Asia, developed in Thailand, made many advertisements, MV and TV series, and got the opportunity to shoot his own film debut "Who’s Running? And was nominated for the New Wave Award of Busan International Film Festival. It was only that year that another young director from Shanxi finally stood at the award ceremony. His name was.
Soon after, the two brothers finished a script with almost no lines about a deaf-mute killer — — They decided to be directors together as they were children.
With superb editing, Peng Fa told a story with almost no dialogue. Later, this Thai film with a strong Hong Kong film style won the four awards of Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor and Best Editing in one fell swoop, and also won the International Film Critics Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The brothers’ first work was a great success.
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Thailand, Applause Pictures was just established, and it was in urgent need of cooperation from new directors. As one of the judges of the Thailand Golden Awards that year, he took a fancy to the Peng brothers and invited them back to Hong Kong to make movies, which would also open the golden age for the Peng brothers. With their respective advantages, they constantly refreshed the creative ceiling of horror movies, won numerous international film festival awards, and went to Hollywood to make movies and cooperate with other stars.
After returning to Hongkong, Peng Fa worked as the editor of a series of trilogy, won the best editing award of the Academy Award again with Infernal Affairs 1, and was nominated for the best editing for three consecutive times. In the works directed by himself, he also makes good use of editing thinking, guides the audience’s emotions with the combination of lenses, and creates a feeling of horror and horror.
This talented editor’s directorial dream, which is the peak of his debut, seems to have a perfect ending, just like the plot of a movie, but the reality is not a movie, and life goes on.
In 2009, the "Fengyun" series filmed a sequel, and the original team returned. The former editor has taken the position of director, but compared with the success of his previous work of HK$ 41.5 million, his word-of-mouth and box office have dropped significantly.
At the same time, Peng Fa has gone further and further along the creation of horror movies, but the genre of this theme is extremely small. When the narrative is modeled, the movies are produced like an assembly line, and the final results are not satisfactory. Many directors have been making the same film all their lives, and Peng Fa is obviously more extreme.
Silent North Hong Kong Director
With the signing of CEPA agreement and the development of the mainland film market, more and more Hong Kong directors choose to "go north" to make films in the mainland.
,,, Chen Kexin, … These directors all ushered in a new creative stage after going north, which also made many Hong Kong stars glow with "second spring".
Except for these great directors, the situation of other directors is different.
In 2013, after the Peng brothers went north, they directed a co-production film between the mainland and Hong Kong, and tried the theme of disaster film for the first time. Actors,,, starring, the lineup is luxurious, but unfortunately the final word of mouth and box office have a certain gap with expectations. However, in this film, we can vaguely see that they are good at integrating the thriller elements into the disaster theme.
Since then, the two have stopped directing films together and started their own development.
Peng Fa has filmed youth themes, suspense themes, and participated in the screenwriter of the comedy film Let That Girl Go, but failed to give full play to his creative advantages, and both box office and word of mouth failed, and began to be criticized as a "bad film director".
After being frustrated, Peng Fa has made many films with horror themes, but the comfort zone has not become the "ruling area" of Peng Fa. Apart from various factors, people can’t help but question, "Is this Peng Fa’s film?"
Later, Peng Fa turned to shoot action movies, but the result was still regrettable. Although he expected to reproduce the classic "Silent Fire" in the era of "Peng Brothers" and direct the theme of criminal action, the miracle did not happen, and the box office barely exceeded 20 million.
The expectation of the new film "Broken War" is also not optimistic, which is largely influenced by the failure of "Trapped Beast". "Broken War" and "Trapped Beast" have the same configuration: Hong Kong star lineup+action crime+director Peng Fa. However, it is still worth looking forward to whether "Broken War" can learn from the creative experience of previous works with the same theme and improve the quality of its works.
Peng Fa, like a paranoid player, assigned all his talent points to the skill tree of editing and horror in movie games.
After going north, he failed to give full play to his own advantages and misjudged the situation in the mainland market. With the rapid growth of mainland movies and audiences, the once classic meta-narrative and the competitiveness of the theme of tiger balm are no longer the same.
Bankruptcy application is submitted and withdrawn.
Before filing for bankruptcy, Peng Fa was filming a TV series in the Mainland. After learning of his wife’s illness, he was worried that he would not see his wife for the last time. He decided to pay liquidated damages and return to Hong Kong. Previously, he also signed a contract for a mainland film, but due to the continuous delay of the shooting date, he was unable to pay the medical expenses without compensation. In addition, due to the particularity of the director’s career, there was no fixed salary certificate, so he had to borrow from the private sector.
The dilemma of filmmakers is finally solved by film.
Peng Fa wanted to take care of his wife and return to his old job, but he could hardly get the job of editing. Fortunately, my brother Peng Shun gave him support. After the wife of the actor who had worked together knew his predicament, she gave him a sum of money in the name of director’s fee for emergency. Colleagues in the film industry also helped him introduce job opportunities and give him care and support.
The new project of Alibaba Pictures cooperating with Hongkong Universal and Peng Fa has enabled him to withdraw his bankruptcy application and rekindle his hope. Compared with fundraising, filmmakers help directors in the form of work. Not only let Peng Fa display his strengths, but also let him get through the current difficulties.
At present, Peng Fa has a new film project, but also a film to be released."Dragon and Child" and "The Golden Cicada Demons" are Peng Fa’s first attempt at fantasy adventure themes, which have been finished.Regenerated manPeng Fa’s first science fiction film. Tentatively scheduled to be released in 2025Fortress of moneybywang qian yuan、William Feng、Ju Jingyi; Kiku、Danny ChanWith the leading role and the help of luxury actors, Peng Fa once again challenged crime movies.
The director is the operator of the movie dream machine, while Peng Fa connects dreams with reality and witnesses the silent majority. The achievement of Breaking the War after its release is undoubtedly an important battle for director Peng Fa to prove himself, but no matter what the result is, Peng Huifa is creating infinite possibilities.