Du Qifeng, the representative work of the Galaxy Image Period (1997), insisted on developing a personalized film route. Together with producer Wei Jiahui, screenwriter Situ Jinyuan, Yau Nai-hoi and director Tat-Chi Yau, he established a new force in the Hong Kong film industry-Galaxy Image. Speaking of the galaxy image, the above characters can not be ignored. Wei Jiahui himself is also a good filmmaker. Many works are conceived by him, and he is also a good director. Situ Jinyuan and Qiu Naihai are the main creative forces of Galaxy images. Long-term experience of TV screenwriters makes their scripts have a good grasp of the detailed description ability of movies. The other two people's fascination with suspense makes Yinhe Ying's works the most impossible movie in Hong Kong to guess the ending. Whether it's 1998' s surprise, or 1999' s dark flowers and gun fire, or this year's new film "PTU", it all embodies this point, and at the same time makes Galaxy Shadow the most important film creation group in Hong Kong. You Dazhi has always played the role of executive director in Galaxy Image. In terms of style, he adhered to the genre film route well, and his shooting techniques and lens application all won Du Chuanchuan's biography. He is really an indispensable member of the galactic image. Of course, the core and leading soul of the Milky Way is Du Qifeng himself, and Du Zhi is the image of the Milky Way. I feel a bit like Tsui Hark's film studio. Although most movies are only in the name of producers, they have always firmly grasped the rhythm and style of movies. Look at Tsui Hark's films, whether directed by Cheng Xiaodong or Li Huimin, they are all "Tsui Hark's works". Du Qifeng's role is very similar to his.

Since the establishment of 1997, Galaxy Image has made many films in the past six years. If we exclude pure commercial works such as slimming men and women and centuries-old harmony, then the film style that truly represents the Galaxy image genre should be the birth of the prefix (1997), which is unexpected. If you are familiar with the above films, you may soon find the overall style of the Galaxy image. For example, Du Qifeng is very persistent about the background of Jianghu and the types of policemen and robbers. But he no longer attracts the audience with simple thrilling scenes, but focuses on the inner state and emotional entanglements of ordinary policemen from the perspective of small people. In the characterization and display full of personality, he does not shy away from the original shortcomings and inertia of the characters, but gives the audience a new perspective to re-understand the police and reflect on the traditional police. In addition, the theme of impermanence in life, the ruthless anatomy of real life, the originality of stories and the innovative changes in film techniques all constitute a distinctive style. Different from the "personal works" directed by Wong Kar-wai, Guan and other art films, which only pay attention to the emotional accumulation of the story, ignoring the layers of details and the complete and exquisite layout, the works are often covered with the cloak of gangster commercial films, and in essence, they subvert the traditional genre films through carefully crafted suspense stories with multiple structures and multiple clues. The dark game, the unexpected death and the sharp turn of the peak of the gun fire, although ignored, deliberately cater to the audience's feelings, can still make the audience repeatedly tongue-tied and ponder. All the above works are deeply permeated with a strong sense of tragedy and fatalism, and deliberately emphasize that all personal careful calculations can't resist the impermanence of fate. For example, a bunch of policemen in Unexpected are full of cool energy. They just caught a serious fugitive, but they met unexpectedly on the occasion of collective celebration. The two "big circle boys" they thought were mistresses were both killed in a scuffle. Another example is Tony Leung Chiu Wai's Macau policeman in The Dark Flower, who escaped from danger many times through scheming, but eventually he could not escape his fate and was bound to die. And the gun that Sha Fei searched for all night in the rain of bullets, but it miraculously appeared at the last minute and saved Sha Fei. The killer with answers died in the west, which makes people lament the impermanence of fate. As Liu Qingyun said to Tony Leung Chiu Wai in The Dark Flower, "You and I are like this pinball. No matter where we roll and when we stop, we can't help ourselves. " In terms of style, Du's works are often reminiscent of Gao 'an Brothers' films. The picture is full of black and absurd atmosphere, and the arrangement of the script is so exciting and elusive, full of the unique magic charm of that type of film.

The faithful description of violence is also a major feature of Galaxy Image. Moreover, the perpetrators are not entirely gangsters, and the police are often ruthless, subverting the conventional impression that the police and thieves are clearly distinguished from good and evil in general police films. For example, in The Dark Flower, the policeman sabotaged the negotiation between George and Kigo in order to prevent the killer from getting the dark flower, and quietly mutilated the suspect's hand with a wine bottle, while Ye Hong's men played by Liu Qingyun smashed the windshield of the car with their heads in the process of escaping the police's arrest, and their attitude towards life was also reflected through their desperate tactics. In PTU, Yam Tat-wah, the squad leader, calmly beat the rotten boy when he was spying on the ponytail in the game hall, and all the policemen on the street corner beat the informers, all of which showed that Du Qifeng made no secret of his ruthless exposure of the "evil" side of human nature in real life. Death is closely related to violence, and it is also a consistent theme in Du Qifeng. The hero of the film seems to have the shadow of death in his hand at any time. For Du Qifeng, death may not be the end or the end of life, but it is accompanied by fear everywhere around him, which often decides life and death within 24 hours. He seems to like this cruel feeling that drives the characters to the end, hovering between life and death, thus producing the most instinctive potential passion.

Another feature of Galaxy movies is action design, which is different from Wu Yusen's "violent aesthetics" with great visual impact and appreciation. Du Qifeng pays more attention to the internal tension of static braking. Just like John Woo, Du Qifeng's fascination with gun posture and deliberate emphasis, if John Woo is more obsessed with the moment when everything is in the rain of bullets, then Du Qifeng pays more attention to the description of the state before and after shooting. In his movies, you can't see shooting positions dancing, and you don't need to break down the action in slow motion. You use documentary means and realistic sound effects to stimulate the nerves of the audience. At the end of Unexpected, six policemen and robbers meet. Every shot is not exaggerated delay and deliberate enlargement, but really cruel but gripping. The gun battle in Tsuen Wan Shopping Mall, which is the most talked about in bullets, is enough to show Du Qifeng's extraordinary wisdom and profound foundation. The costumes, shapes, gun poses and postures of the characters in the play all have a strong Japanese bushido color, and the shadows of Japanese directors Akira Kurosawa and Kitano Takeshi are clearly visible. Du Qifeng has always admired the sense of tranquility created by Kurosawa's films. Under his influence, the play was designed with "quietness" as the goal. What he wants to present is not gaudy movements and exciting scenes, but a solidified atmosphere of tension and despair, which has a cool and vivid expression of the internal tension of various characters before and after shooting. From time to time, a long shot of a wide space is zoomed out. Through carefully designed space occupation and model appearance, each character has a unique sense of film, but it is pleasing to the eye without seeking reasonable spatial relationship. Although there are stages, everyone can feel the suffocating tension. The new work PTU also continues this style of action design. In the film, several mobile players are often seen standing at the golden section of the picture, and the photographer creates the tension of the picture by pushing the long lens. The beauty of "quietness" is vividly displayed in the film.

Seeing Du Qifeng's works and his reflection of the Milky Way in this era of shoddy Hong Kong films really brings many surprises. They shoot and produce with a very rigorous attitude, and it is quite rare that they don't sway with the wind. What's more commendable is that Yinhe Image still insists on its own style under the pressure of the market, which has a lot to do with the creative styles of Du Qifeng and Wei Jiahui, which are constantly innovating and giving up the easy and taking the hard. Although after the overall success of 1999 "Gunfire", Du Qifeng wavered between business and art for two years, and also made some box office movies, this year he finally went back to his old ways and presented us with a wonderful PTU, which proved that he is still the best in Hong Kong at present. Galaxy Image changed slightly in 2000, that is, Du Qifeng entered Zhongxing Group as the president of operation, specializing in film production and distribution. His first big move was to set up a "Centennial Film Company" with Tsui Hark, Lin Lingdong and Chen Jiashang, and he planned to make 20 films a year. With his down-to-earth style, persistent innovation and breakthrough, and sincere and rigorous film production, we have reason to believe that he can lead the positive forces of the Hong Kong film industry to create more wonderful films.

Reprinted in: Qiantang Forum? "Movie Salon"? On the galaxy image