Chapter 808: It Is Just

The movie "Infernal Affairs" ends here.

Qian Zhengyi looked at the closing credits that echoed the film's beginning, his heart unable to calm down for a long time.

He had also imagined that the grand finale would be Liu Jianming coming out of the elevator, the police surrounding him, and then arresting him after all.

But compared to this ending by Luo Mo, he felt such a conventional ending would be too weak.

Moreover, it would be very unreasonable, making that incomparably classic rooftop scene seem completely unnecessary.

In his view, this ending is very ironic and very dark.

Especially the moment the elevator door opens, the first close-up shot given is Liu Jianming's police badge.

He holds the police badge high and walks out slowly, his expression calm.

This made him involuntarily recall that conversation on the rooftop.

"Sorry, I'm a cop," Chen Yongren said.

"Who knows?" Liu Jianming said.

If Li Xin'er hadn't found the undercover proof among Principal Ye's belongings, he would have been nothing but a gangster until his death.

Inside the Cinema, the lights came on.

Qian Qingyun and his son Qian Zhengyi could still hear the conversation of the audience in the front row.

"Ah! This ending makes me feel so uncomfortable."

"I think it's awesome!"

"Amazing, it actually passed review; Luo Mo is truly a damn Pass-Review Genius."

Of course, after the movie ends, many audience members will exchange views on whether this movie is actually good or not.

During the Lunar New Year, who doesn't want to watch a good movie?

If the movie isn't good, it's like spending money in vain on an auspicious day, which is somewhat unlucky.

And the audience in the Cinema gave it nothing but praise!

"Luo Mo's acting is really top-tier!"

"I think he should win Best Actor!"

"I even felt a few times that Hua Jiaqun didn't act as well as him, especially in the eye acting."

"Damn, I got stabbed again, it's so damn annoying, but the acting is so damn good!"

"The movie is really good, it exceeded my expectations."

After the audience in the Cinema had basically dispersed, Qian Qingyun and Qian Zhengyi stood up to leave.

After returning to the car, Qian Zhengyi asked curiously, "Dad, if you were to give it a score, what would you give this movie?"

"Nine point five, I suppose," Qian Qingyun said.

"That high?" Qian Zhengyi was slightly surprised.

"Is it high? When will you be able to film a movie of this level... no, just seven or eight points of its quality would suffice, and I would definitely retire immediately and go home to live out my old age," Qian Qingyun glanced at him and said testily.

Qian Zhengyi opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't know what to say.

On the way home, the father and son were both discussing this movie.

Qian Zhengyi was like he was sharing his own thoughts after watching, but he was frequently interrupted by his father.

On many points, Qian Qingyun and Qian Zhengyi had different understandings.

At the same time, Qian Qingyun also supplemented Qian Zhengyi with many details and parts he hadn't had a Realization about.

From beginning to end, Qian Zhengyi was never sure what exactly this person Liu Jianming was thinking.

Did he really want to be a good person?

Every time he felt that Liu Jianming wanted to be a good person, he would immediately do a bad thing.

It really leaves one speechless!

And the personal understanding Qian Qingyun gave was: "He wanted to; to be precise, the word I would rather use is—he was struggling."

"But he and Chen Yongren are not the same type of person at all."

"Although Chen Yongren was an Undercover for many years and had a vast amount of experience in the underworld, with fighting and brawling being a daily occurrence, this person is very upright in the movie."

"The difficulty of Character Shaping for Liu Jianming is actually even greater than for Chen Yongren."

"He isn't completely good, nor is he completely bad. This is my personal opinion."

"When he went to the rooftop to find Chen Yongren, he went with expectations."

"He hoped Chen Yongren would make a deal with him and give him a chance to be a good person."

"But because he is not a cop at his core, while Chen Yongren has always been a cop at his core, that is why there is such a situation."

"How could a cop negotiate terms with a criminal?"

"And how could a cop negotiate terms with a criminal?"

"Chen Yongren didn't intend to let him go; this was the first step of him stepping into the abyss of his heart."

"And the second step was the appearance of Da B."

Hearing this, Qian Zhengyi, who was driving, was stunned for a moment.

He had a different view.

"Wouldn't the appearance of Da B just happen to help Liu Jianming clear his name?" he couldn't help but say.

This person Da B is truly both stupid and evil; he even thought Han Chen didn't appreciate him because Brother Chen didn't know quality.

He actually told Liu Jianming that he had helped him clean up all the incriminating evidence at Han Chen's place.

That would have been enough, but he even gave him the gun.

They could have clearly become partners in fate, and could have clearly relied on one secret to live off him for a lifetime.

Yet he handed everything over into the other person's hands.

Your... sincerity is a bit too much.

Therefore, Qian Zhengyi felt that Da B was simply the light for Liu Jianming, his salvation!

Hearing this, Qian Qingyun glanced at his son with a bit of disdain.

"I am not discussing whitewashing with you; I am talking about his inner world."

"Oh, oh." Qian Zhengyi hurriedly chimed in.

"As a director, I seriously suspect you didn't notice a very brilliant symbolic shot in the final few sequences." Qian Qingyun frowned: "I originally thought that with your level, you should have noticed it one hundred percent."

"Dad, which one are you talking about?" Qian Zhengyi was instantly nervous.

He really hadn't noticed anything, but in his speech, he deliberately asked "which one."

"It's the shot of the elevator descending."

"This shot doesn't explicitly show what happened inside the elevator; you only see the elevator continuously falling down the elevator shaft, and then, accompanied by the sound of gunfire, Liu Jianming shoots and kills Da B."

"Did you notice that in this shot, there is an interplay of light and dark at the beginning?"

"But as the elevator continues to fall, and the gunshots ring out continuously, it finally plunges into the endless abyss!"

"According to the cinematic language of this film, that is entering the Avici Hell!"

Hearing this, Qian Zhengyi recalled the scene and couldn't help but shudder.

Yes, this shot very likely has such a meaning!

The most classic scenes in this film all take place on the rooftop and in the elevator.

The elevator can go up, and it can also go down.

Does the rooftop symbolize something like heaven or other positive imagery?

You have to know, in the rooftop scenes, the dazzling sunlight in the sky was given close-ups several times.

Chen Yongren also said: "I'm not like you, I can't see the light."

If you think about these implications carefully, they are expressed quite clearly.

And the descent of the elevator is naturally falling into the Avici Hell!

The elevator is the 【channel】!

After a bit of guidance from Qian Qingyun, Qian Zhengyi instantly had a feeling of sudden enlightenment.

He understood it all at once.

Yes, starting from the Character Shaping of the role of Liu Jianming, he always wanted to be a good person, at least a good person on the surface without any stains, without any dark history.

But there are always people appearing, becoming his new stains.

He didn't know about Da B's existence before.

Then, how could he be clear about how many of these so-called "fellow apprentices" there are, and whether there are still any left in the police station?

The moment the elevator door opened, Liu Jianming, who had already fallen into the Avici Hell, walked out holding his police badge, looking no different from any other day.

This so-called "no different" is the most terrifying part!

He is still him!

"I didn't have a choice before, now I want to be a good person."

Regardless of whether you truly want salvation, or just want to completely whitewash... I'm sorry, you still don't have a choice now!

You have to continue living like before, continue suffering like before.

Some have died, but perhaps that is a form of relief.

Some people are To Live, yet they suffer for a lifetime and cannot obtain salvation.

It is precisely because of this that at the very end of the film, that line appears: "【The Buddha says: Those who suffer in the Incessant are immortal; long life is the great calamity in the Avici Hell.】"

Qian Zhengyi truly admired Luo Mo to the ground.

He found it hard to imagine that this film is a commercial film.

Yes, Infernal Affairs possesses all the attributes of such Undercover commercial films.

It is very exciting, very tense, with one climax after another, and elements like gunfights and intellectual battles.

Yet, its Character Shaping is even more superb, with a large number of supporting roles being incredibly brilliant.

What is even more impressive is the exploration of human nature!

That feeling of being unable to help oneself, that anxiety, that psychological sense of loss from not being able to obtain a complete 【identity】...

Yet our Eastern films all have the colors of Eastern people, very restrained and subtle.

This restrained and subtle expression makes a lot of the content even more thought-provoking.

Honestly, in this film, there are too many high-level things that Qian Zhengyi cannot handle for the time being.

To be precise, just the 【sense of rhythm】 that is highly emphasized in commercial films, he feels he has a huge gap compared to Luo Mo.

Not to mention anything else, just talk about the scene where Huang Zhicheng dies.

It truly has perfect tension and release!

He felt that while watching, his heart was lifted, then dropped, then lifted again, and finally, with a crash, it shattered along with the sound of the fall.

The father and son discussed all the way, and in the end, Qian Qingyun couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"In the eighties and nineties, I and several representatives of Mainland directors could be said to have fought to the death with Hong Kong directors."

"After the year 2000, it was the same."

"Recalling it now, this kind of police-and-thief film, this kind of soldier and thief, Hong Kong films have shot I don't know how many."

"Everyone felt that they couldn't come up with any new tricks."

"Yet Luo Mo ultimately gathered the strengths of all."

"If I had encountered Infernal Affairs back in the day,"

"I might not have dared to fight him!" Qian Qingyun said.

"No, it's not just me; Feng Ji and those few others probably wouldn't dare to fight him either!" Qian Qingyun added.

On the day of its release on the First Day of the Lunar New Year, *Infernal Affairs* was already extremely popular.

The screen allocation rate for this film during this year's Spring Festival slot was 27.8%.

This screen allocation rate is considered quite high, but for a film by Luo Mo, especially one he directed and starred in himself, anything under 30% is considered low.

There are actually some unspoken rules on Blue Star involved here; Luo Mo was not surprised that the screen allocation rate didn't break 30% on the First Day.

Luo Mo had high expectations for this film's box office.

After all, back in the day, *Infernal Affairs* was the film that saved the Hong Kong film market.

By eight o'clock in the evening, the total daily box office for *Infernal Affairs* had already broken the 300 million mark.

In fact, by this time, the box office had already begun to stabilize.

The First Day of the Lunar New Year is the most popular time for cinemas; many people buy tickets in advance, otherwise, they are really hard to snatch up.

But breaking 350 million should not be difficult.

This has already broken the first-day box office record for a Hong Kong film!

If it really does break 350 million in the end, that is equivalent to forcefully raising the first-day box office record for Hong Kong films by 150 million!

However, the first-day box office was never the data Luo Mo cared about most.

No one in the industry would take the first-day box office of *Infernal Affairs* too seriously either.

The gimmick of Luo Mo directing and starring in it alone is worth hundreds of millions!

His films will not flop at the box office on the first day.

The key is to look at the word-of-mouth and the subsequent influence.

The most interesting thing is that in the Mainland and in Hong Kong, the standards for judging whether a Hong Kong film is good or bad are not necessarily exactly the same.

After all, the general environment is different.

For a film like *Infernal Affairs*, if the general background were changed to the Mainland, then a lot of the content would have to be heavily modified.

This is a very "Hong Kong-style" film; to a certain extent, it fits the history of Hong Kong and fits the general environment of that time.

In fact, starting from the afternoon, film reviews and short critiques appeared continuously all over the internet.

Like the Hong Kong media, there were some outlets that didn't take a break even during the New Year; they just camped out at the cinemas, waiting to interview everyone and ask them if *Infernal Affairs* was good.

The result was naturally—nothing but high praise!

Many Hong Kong citizens expressed that at first, seeing Luo Mo come to direct a Hong Kong film, and even putting out the slogan of it being a "film that saves the market," they always felt a bit strange in their hearts.

Everyone likes Luo Mo too, but this is filming a Hong Kong movie!

Therefore, it is normal to have a sense of contradiction in one's heart.

Everyone didn't think an "outsider" could save the Hong Kong film market.

But after walking into the cinema and finishing the film, everyone felt that this was completely different from the police and gangster films they had watched before!

Several Best Actors competing in acting—it was very satisfying, that's for sure.

But everyone initially thought there would be many grand scenes.

For example, all kinds of awesome explosions, all kinds of hail of bullets, all kinds of invincible special effects...

Luo Mo had already proven in *The Wandering Earth* that he is a master when it comes to grand scenes.

Yet in this regard, *Infernal Affairs* undoubtedly makes people "disappointed."

However, you still find it very exciting, very tense, and feel that it is very gripping!

This really demonstrates a director's skill.

Not relying on visual effects to make everyone secrete hormones.

But relying on other, more detailed things!

One by one, the people of Hong Kong were saying as they walked out of the Cinema: "The movie is great!"

As of midnight, the first-day box office for *Infernal Affairs* was 367 million, ranking first in this year's Spring Festival slot.

If there are no surprises, the box office will rise again tomorrow, and it will rise by quite a lot.

On the Second Day of the Lunar New Year, Luo Mo received a WeChat message sent by Qian Qingyun.

He first expressed that he had gone to watch *Infernal Affairs*, liked the film very much, and wished Luo Mo a huge box office success.

Then, this old acquaintance asked a question that countless peers were very concerned about.

"How did you manage to get it through the review?" Old Qian asked.

No matter how you put it, Liu Jianming's hands were stained with blood.

In the end, he did not receive punishment from the law; logically speaking, the Review Department would not have passed it.

In the past, there were reasons why Luo Mo's works passed the review, such as the story background of *Sheep* not being in the country, or like *Corner* filming two endings, one bright and one dark.

Like on Earth, the Mandarin version of *Infernal Affairs* had an arrest scene added, and the subsequent funeral plot for Chen Yongren was removed, losing a lot of the flavor.

Luo Mo typed a reply: "It's very simple, because I told them that this is not the final ending; *Infernal Affairs* is a series, and this is just the first part."

(PS: Tested, no Ox, just caught a cold.)

(End of this chapter)