裂解以期重生 — 港產片≪英雄本色≫的系譜追尋與情感分析

Abstract

Hong Kong director Woo Yu-Sen’s (吴宇森) film noir A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色/ Jing Hung Bun Sik, 1986) is a classic in film history and also unveiled the glorious period of Hong Kong films at the end of the last century. This work pays homage to Lung Kong’s (龍剛) Cantonese film The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (英雄本色/ Jing Hung Bun Sik, 1967). Both films are set in Hong Kong, which is facing a historical moment, and the protagonists are set as a gangster who face an identity crisis after retiring. Although the relationship between the two films which were produced 20 years apart, has been preliminarily pointed out by the director, the specific internal connections and dialogue methods still require more in-depth discussion. In view of this, this study will focus on the comparative analysis of the above works and take narrative strategies as the entry point. On the one hand, it explores the similarities and differences in the layout of character creation, plot arrangement, presentation techniques, and even the aesthetic effects and moral functions produced. On the other hand, this paper will further sort out the emotional drive within the characters and the different ways the overall narrative responds to issues such as “heroes”, “gangsters”, and “the future”, in order to get closer to the core concept of these works. In other words, through the reproduction of this gangster story, what kind of the society and reality are these two films aim to criticize. Film texts are both mass entertainment and educational tools; they are not only the embodiment of artistic ideas, but also witnesses of historical trends. By picking up and filling in the gaps in the history of Hong Kong films, we will have a deeper understanding of Hong Kong’s past, and thus be better able to understand its present and imagine its future.