This director loves making friends.

224 million!

"A Bittersweet Life" grossed 224 million on its opening day.

Xiang Huasheng pushed up his glasses and looked at Xiang Huaqiang with a hint of doubt in his expression.

Xiang Huaqiang was only stunned for a moment, then picked up the report on his desk, checked it again, and was overjoyed.

"That's a bit much."

Xiang Huasheng laughed along, "Did they forget to add punctuation when they delivered it?"

"How is that possible!"

Xiang Huaqiang grinned, knowing that Xiang Huasheng was joking.

"If 224,000 can rank first in yesterday's box office chart, beating Golden Harvest's 'Once Upon a Time in China IV,' then Hong Kong cinema is truly doomed."

"How much is 'Once Upon a Time in China IV'?" Xiang Huasheng asked casually.

Xiang Huaqiang glanced at the report again, his grin widening. "111 million, exactly half the price of 'A Bittersweet Life'."

Actually, it was a little more than half, but Xiang Huaqiang didn't care about those ten or twenty thousand, and generously ignored it.

"good!"

Xiang Huasheng praised it, then pushed up his glasses again, "I just don't know if it will hold up. Are there any threatening movies today?"

He is now preparing to switch to the finance and gaming industry and will often stay in Macau. He has gradually handed over the management of Win's Entertainment to Xiang Huaqiang.

"The sequel to 'A Moment of Romance,' produced by Johnnie To, will be released today."

"They are still quite threatening."

Xiang Huasheng muttered something, tapping the table rhythmically with his hand. After considering for a while, he said to Xiang Huaqiang, "If the future of 'Sweet Life' goes smoothly, we can invest up to ten million in that mainland boy's next movie."

Xiang Huaqiang smiled and nodded, "That's what I think too."

"In addition, copyright must be clearly defined, so that he can no longer exploit loopholes."

Xiang Huasheng emphasized this point again.

Xiang Huaqiang nodded.

During this period, the normal trend for Hong Kong films was that the opening day's box office accounted for about 10% to 12% of the total box office. For blockbuster comedies and action films featuring big stars, the opening day's box office could even reach around 15%.

In other words, as long as "A Bittersweet Life" continues to perform normally, its total box office is likely to exceed 20 million.

This box office result was somewhat unexpected by Xiang Huasheng and Xiang Huaqiang, who had predicted that "A Sweet Life" would gross between 1200 million and 1500 million.

After all, with two major Cannes awards and an additional award, "A Bittersweet Life" is unlikely to have a low box office.

It's worth noting that "Farewell My Concubine," with an almost entirely mainland Chinese cast, was released in Hong Kong on January 1st of this year, before even participating in the Cannes Film Festival, and still grossed 915 million at the box office.

If "Farewell My Concubine" hadn't been released so early, but instead waited until after winning the Palme d'Or, its box office in Hong Kong would have been guaranteed to be over 2500 million.

Meanwhile, Ah Zhen and Ah Qiang were leaving an unlicensed hotel.

"Why did they have to name that movie 'Sweet Life'? Where's the sweetness in it? I'm still a little annoyed by it. The male lead is so pitiful."

Ah Zhen, arm in arm with Ah Qiang, felt depressed thinking about the movie she watched yesterday; the title and the movie content were so different.

"I think it's great, the gameplay is very realistic, not exaggerated at all..."

As he spoke, Ah-Qiang seemed to feel that what he said wasn't "pretentious" enough.

So he racked his brains and finally came up with a sentence: "Life is not always sweet; more often it is bitter and even cruel. The director wanted to make us reflect on humanity and fate through the death of the male protagonist."

Ah Zhen nodded in deep agreement, "You're right, that's why this movie won awards. The director's name is Qin Keqing, right? He's really amazing."

Ah-Qiang thought of the fight scenes he had never seen before in the film, which seemed very different from those in Hong Kong movies, and nodded in agreement, "They are very impressive, and it was really enjoyable to watch."

After he decided to go back, he recommended this movie, which featured cool and realistic fight scenes, to his friends.

Not only ordinary viewers, but even film critics and journalists who went to the theater immediately felt that they had been "cheated".

Hong Kong hasn't produced a film that won a major award at the Cannes Film Festival for many years, so many film critics have been itching to "appreciate" "A Bittersweet Life".

Shi Qi, as one of Hong Kong's most famous film critics, is no exception.

He started writing a column for Ming Pao in the 70s, known for his sharp and short reviews, and was hailed as a "walking encyclopedia of Hong Kong films".

So as soon as "A Bittersweet Life" was released, he invited his good friend Luo Ka to go to the cinema together.

After watching the movie, he and Luo Ka looked at each other in bewilderment. The movie had so many unexpected aspects that he didn't know where to begin.

So Shi Qi invited Luo Ka to write a film review as well.

Roca had the same idea. He had spent many years in Italy, researching and making experimental films. After watching "La Dolce Vita," a film that Cannes called an experimental auteur, he also had a lot to say.

Both of them wrote film reviews overnight and published them together in Ming Pao.

"I went to see 'A Bittersweet Life' expecting a heartwarming or romantic film, but instead I was met with a cold, violent, and aesthetically stimulating gangster action movie. This huge psychological gap left me somewhat bewildered."

I don't want to talk about humanity and art in the film today; this film has something more important.

When we talk about the aesthetics of violence, the first thing that comes to mind is director John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow," which features romantic symbols such as dual pistols, slow motion, white doves, and a church showdown. The gunfights emphasize ritual rather than realistic killing.

We also think of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung's emphasis on environmental use, comedic acrobatics, and hard-hitting kung fu, with a fast pace and great comedic effect.

However, I want to say, very solemnly, that a new kind of violent aesthetics has arrived in Hong Kong!

Yes, unlike the films of John Woo and Jackie Chan, the fight scenes presented in Qin Keqing's "A Bittersweet Life" can be described as "elegant violent aesthetics." This young director has created a new action genre in art films!

Art film... elegant violent aesthetics. If I hadn't seen "A Bittersweet Life," I wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

The fight scenes in "A Bittersweet Life" combine suited assassins, slow-motion shots, minimalist close-quarters combat with high-density gunfights. It is a cold, realistic and highly stylized fusion design of close combat and gunfights.

I can say with certainty that Hong Kong has never seen a movie with such realistic, bone-crunching fight scenes before. It looks absolutely beautiful, almost like a dance, with the fighting perfectly timed.

The film features sharp close-quarters combat and knife fights under a suit, with slow-motion shots highlighting the splattering blood, emphasizing the tragic ritualistic feel of the fight rather than simply pursuing pain or complex moves.

The film makes extensive use of slow motion to enhance the explosive power of moments, with a tight pace of gunfights and precise movement. It uses fewer exaggerated special effects, focusing on a sense of oppressive atmosphere and decisiveness, making it colder, more realistic, and existentialist, which is different from the traditional romantic heroism of Hong Kong films.

I believe that this more modern, hard-edged, sharp, and authorial fighting style will definitely become the new mainstream.

In the end, I still can't believe that this new form of fighting, this elegant yet violent aesthetic, actually came from the hand of an art film director.

"Alas! How strange!"

Shi Qi, known for his sharp and concise reviews, has written a highly acclaimed long novel.

Luo Ka, known for his lengthy treatises, wrote a short story.

"This is a bold attempt by the director to blend experimentalism and auteurism into the violent genre."

It doesn't follow the logic of traditional revenge films, nor does it repeatedly preach. Instead, it opens with the Zen-like question of "Does the wind move the flag or the heart?", directly pulling the gangster narrative into the existentialist context of speculation.

The director deliberately uses gentle classical music to contrast with bloody fight scenes, and uses highly symbolic details such as the flickering of a lamp and the sinking of a sugar cube into coffee to transform the protagonist's inner turmoil into a visual cinematic language, completely breaking the audiovisual inertia of genre films.

As an experimental work, it refuses to provide viewers with cheap emotional outlets. The final fight scene, in which the protagonist punches a mirror image without an opponent, completely breaks away from the narrative paradigms of traditional action and art films.

Qin Keqing uses a gangster film guise to encapsulate his personal expression of "love at first sight is destiny," making this the most fitting experimental film that blends commercial and art cinema.

As a film critic and filmmaker who spent many years in Italy in his early career, Roca felt that this experimental and auteur film was more inclined towards commercial narrative. However, the fact that it was a Cannes-certified film and the jury unanimously agreed to award it a special prize made him think a lot more.

Then, I suddenly realized that I had thought too superficially and had not considered things thoroughly. This is the "perfect" experimental film that combines commercial and art films.