In a time not too long ago, there was a trend in HK action movies.
If your hero needed some motivation, a quest or drive to spur him on and to create some kind of screwed up personality disorder that will make him singular and lacking in social skills, there was only one thing to do, kill his wife.
In the span of 2 or 3 years, it seemed, more likely or not, our protagonist would have one thing in common, his wife would be dead.
In films such as “Invisible Target”, “Fire of Conscience”and “Accident” , the hero’s wife is dead and this event is the driving force of our hero’s motivation.
Now there are no spoilers in this article as the death in all these cases take place within the first 5 mins of the movies and all these cases, dominate the main character’s actions throughout.
Now you may say that lots of thrillers have their leading man bereft of spouse, such as Harry Callaghan in “Dirty Harry”. But with Harry, it certainly adds colour to his character and explains why he is a loner and a bit surly. But his character’s driving force isn’t because his wife is dead. Her passing is mentioned in passing and it’s not dwelled upon as in the aforementioned movies. And it’s certainly not the life force (or dead force) that powers our hero.
Now I’m not saying that using this device negates the entertainment value of these movies. “Invisible Target” was a thoroughly enjoyable action and “Accident” is a tautly made and tense paranoid thriller. “Fire of Conscience” has Leon with a dodgy beard . However, Leon grew that beard because his wife was dead. So it’s a pretty serious thing to happen if it makes Leon Lai do the facial hair.
No much of a conclusion but I just thought it was an interesting coincidence. Not for me to say whether it’s a lazy plot device to create motivate, oh no.
Dante Lam directed 2 of the movies, so he must hate marital bliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment