香港回归20周年：经典港片回顾

A Better Tomorrow 英雄本色 (1986)

“I’m not showing them I’m the best. I just want to tell them I can take back what I’ve lost.”
“我并不是表现给他们看我是最牛的。我只是想让他们知道，我能拿回我失去的东西。”

To understand how this particular John Woo-Chow Yun-fat collaboration – instead of their more stylistically accomplished The Killer or Hard Boiled – captured the imaginations of a generation is perhaps to chart the history of cinephilia in Hong Kong. With a Chinese title that translates as ‘the true nature of heroes’, Wu’s seminal heroic bloodshed movie has indeed combined the best of several (movie) worlds: as a relatively faithful remake of Patrick Lung Kong’s The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967), it is further spiced up by the principle of brotherhood and the honorable code of yi stemming from martial arts epics of yesteryears – especially those by his mentor Chang Cheh, for whom Woo had previously served as assistant director. While deliciously pitting Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung’s brother characters against each other as mortal enemies on opposite sides of the law, the action classic is also exponentially enhanced by Chow’s charismatic portrayal of Mark, who could forget the sight of him lighting a cigarette with a burning banknote? His cockiness is exceeded only by his loyalty and heroism; in our approving minds, Mark is us.
要想明白吴宇森和周润发合作的这部影片为何能够超越两人合作的另外两部在风格上更有成就的影片《喋血双雄》和《辣手神探》而成功获得一代人的关注，可能就相当于追溯香港的影迷历史。吴宇森这部影响深远的喋血英雄片《英雄本色》的确融合了电影领域的多个最佳卖点：该片是对1967年龙刚导演作品《英雄本色》的忠实改编，同时又添加了兄弟情以及过去武侠片中推崇的义。吴宇森受影响最多的是他的师父张彻导演的那些武侠片，他曾给张彻做过副导演。一边是狄龙和张国荣扮演的兄弟俩站在法律的两边上演精彩对立戏码，另一边，周润发扮演的Mark魅力十足，也为这部经典动作影片增色不少：谁能忘掉他用点着的钞票点烟的那个画面呢？他的高傲自大只会被他自己的忠诚和英雄主义超越，在我们的心中，Mark就是我们每个人。