Film Name: 金手指 / The Goldfinger
There are a bunch of new films coming out in 2023, and I watched The Goldfinger first, which I was most interested in, and it lived up to my expectations and had a lot of ‘surprises’.
I thought about it carefully afterwards, and I figured out why I felt this way: it is neither a co-production of Hong Kong people going north to specialise in crime and action, nor is it a local film that is slowly re-growing and focusing on the flavour of Hong Kong. …… The Goldfinger breaks the stereotype of Hong Kong films that I have been holding for the past few years, and it is a differentiated way to go. the way of differentiation.
Of course, the results of this new approach are impressive and desirable, not only avoiding the clichés and routines that Hong Kong commercial films tend to fall into nowadays, but also telling a story that is extravagant, flashy, and wildly popular without losing its authenticity through a unique audio-visual language and narrative style.
Oh yeah, The Goldfinger is also a film about Tony Leung and Andy Lau working together again after 20 years, and although I’m not personally ‘excited’ about this selling point, there’s no denying that the two of them, especially Tony Leung, really ‘have something’ to do in the film! ‘I’m not very excited about this film, but there’s no denying that both of them, especially Tony Leung, are very good in this film.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
I’m used to skimming over the production aspects of a film, such as the costumes, sets, and camera work, but The Goldfinger is different in that it’s so impressive in terms of these ‘hardware’ aspects that it creates its own aesthetic, and it also contributes to the film’s narrative, themes, and so on, that it’s worth talking about. It’s worth talking about.
The first thing I’d like to say is that the colour palette of the film is spot on.
Here mainly refers to the part of the film’s memory line, it is not difficult to find that Cheng Yiyan’s historical footage of his family’s development, the exterior part of the film almost always adopts a similar grey tone + black and gold colour style, which is undoubtedly more realistic and durable compared to the usual simple old images, and even makes me feel that ‘the quality of the old Hong Kong film remade in high definition is also like this’.
I have the deepest impression of a scene, Cheng Yiyan sitting in the car of Zeng Jianqiao looking out of the window of the Jinshan Mansion scene: in the characters of the grey and green suits and the overall picture of the dark contrast, Jinshan Mansion’s bright gold looks particularly demonic and abrupt, and then combined with Cheng Yiyan want to do business to no avail, but rely on speculation in the situation of the rich, and add a sentence, ‘Hong Kong is really a strange place! ‘…… The antique and gold-rush atmosphere of Hong Kong’s ‘Golden Age’ has been captured on paper.
It can be said that the foundation of ‘The Goldfinger’ is made up of the vintage texture and gold splendour on the screen, which makes the audience believe that the Pearl of the Orient in the 1970s and 1980s can really stage the myth of the adventurer’s riches.
The film also does a lot of visualisation when it comes to the ‘up and down’ world of Vanity Fair.
The wine and wine parties, the extravagance of the meeting place, the ups and downs of the stock exchange, the boxes and bags of dollars dumped in front of the eyes of the gentlemen, filling up the screen with money.
However, unlike ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, which pursues sensual stimulation, ‘The Goldfinger’, while satisfying the sense of curiosity of financial transactions mentioned above, is always in the process of retracting and retracting in an orderly manner, which is a subtle and ‘stuffy’ essence of oriental aesthetics.
Soon after the opening scene, Liu Qiyuan went to arrest Cheng Yiyan, for example, hundreds of ICAC army into the building, as the river flows into the sea like the disappearance of the trace – Jiawen Group has been made into a rich and magnificent and layers of staggered giant palace, and so on Liu Qiyuan turn to see Cheng Yiyan to say that the subject of the single, he has not much momentum to speak of. How much momentum to speak of, related footage, props, scenes, have long implied that the ICAC this hard battle, in the face of money and power will be how difficult.
It is also worth mentioning that ‘The Goldfinger’ also filmed several sections of the playful ‘waste scene’, that is, the part where people speculate who is the gold master behind Cheng Yiyan.
Cheng Yiyan from the nameless black family into ten billion predator, relying on the bold game, money for money, but there are several key investments in the critical period is very mysterious, no one knows the details, which gives everyone the space to play the imagination, some people say it is the Nanyang power elite, some people say it is the Golden Triangle warlords, and some people say it is the European mafia.
But these speculations are shot very pompous banter, a look is very false, no one will believe, but Cheng Yiyan out of the real money and allow have to believe, which constitutes one of the film’s most central argument: the nature of the capital market is a confidence game, as long as the cowhide is not broken, blowing and then large is true.
The film is shot with a light touch, a gorgeous soundtrack, and a refreshing rhythm …… Speaking of which, I can see why I liked The Goldfinger: it unexpectedly gave me a fresh experience unlike a Hong Kong film.
At the same time, the film’s story is rare in that it’s not shallow, not sloppy, and it’s a solid catch for the bizarre and dramatic nature of the ‘Canning Murders’.
The story line of ‘The Goldfinger’ is divided into two, one is about Cheng Yiyan, a nobody who smuggled himself into Hong Kong and became a rich businessman who can ‘turn a stone into gold’ step by step by trickery and trickery, and the other is about Liu Qiyuan, a member of the ICAC, who has been biting Cheng Yiyan’s head off for more than ten years and has been pursuing him for a very long time.
The two threads can actually be treated as one, but the film intentionally splits them up, creating two very different styles.
The former focuses on the coolness of the perception level, with all the audience can understand the way to show Cheng Yiyan empty gloves, borrowing and speculation experience, that kind of ‘in the game of money to play the market, arrogant and domineering’ strength, anyone can feel, before the previous many audio-visual language is for the service of this line.
The latter is for the ‘flying to the sky’ of the former bottom and landing, it makes the story of ‘The Goldfinger’ does not become false because of the curiosity, but also makes the whole film in the re-degradation of the mortal world, has the depth and space to match its theme.
Between Liu Qiyuan and Cheng Yiyan, at first it seems that they are evenly matched, but as the investigation deepens, and as the latter escapes sanction again and again, everyone realises who is the one who really holds the power.
In between, not only is there a change in the status of the two protagonists, but even Cheng Yiyan himself has completed a fundamental, non-contradictory transformation.
As early as when he came out to go it alone, Cheng Yiyan used the name of his personal assistant, Zhang Jiawen, to register and create a number of companies, and after that, when he was in the commercial and financial markets, he was also a behind-the-scenes trader in the capacity of a chess player, just like a chess player, until the 1982 Hong Kong Stock Market Crash, the stock price of Jiawen followed the big dive, and Cheng Yiyan in order to stabilise the overall situation was forced to come from the back of the curtain to the front of the stage.
But when Liu Qiyuan thought close to the truth, Cheng Yiyan threw out a higher level of truth: you only stare at my hands tens of billions of dollars, but did not see behind the hundreds of billions of dollars involved, I simply do not know their own back of the real master of the gold is who I am, I am only a senior point of the white gloves.
At this point, Cheng Yiyan naturally and smoothly completed the transition from chess player to chess piece, because he has smoothly said ‘money outside the money’ of the rules of the game at a higher level.
From this to look at the fight between the two for more than ten years, also has a new meaning – Cheng Yiyan early understanding of their own positioning and value, so he mixed with the prosperous, green pine will not fall, the rest of the partners in the end, either dead or back, only he has always been unharmed, because there is no better than him to use the chess piece.
In contrast, also step by step Liu Qiyuan understand this truth is much later, he is trapped in his own position and personal grudges, always a step behind, but eventually he understood, his more than a decade of tireless pursuit, in fact, is only one of the conditions for the achievement of the other party’s value.
Even Cheng Yiyan was sentenced to jail in 1996, but it was only a small-for-big deal, and Tsang Cambridge’s son had already come out to take the main responsibility. At that time, the justice under the British colonial background was very dark and corrupt, and Cheng Yiyan’s ‘gold master’ behind him colluded with the justice, so he was sentenced lightly, which can see how ridiculous justice is under the British colonialism! –LIU Qiyuan has never really won, and CHING Yat-yin has always been the winner.
I think that The Goldfinger is convincing enough to tell the story to this extent.
Last but not least, I would like to praise Tony Leung’s performance, in which he has performed a very different kind of madness and oppression from his life, and he has added a lot of body language details to portray his character, such as the two major ‘magic skills’ that big brothers always have, cooking and eating, and there are also a lot of small gestures which are thoughtfully done, so if you have a mind to check it out for yourself, please do so.
All in all, I highly recommend this unique film, which has both the face of a powerful blockbuster and the substance of a heavy blockbuster.
Please specify：Yescase Store » The Goldfinger 2023 Film Review: gilded skin, look of real gold