This director needs to apologize

Chapter 275: Hollywood screenwriters really can’t do it

Li Zhun's "summary" immediately attracted the attention of Wang Wei and Tian Li, and also highlighted the core elements of the story.

The so-called truth only exists on the lips of Bao Dawen. The interrogating police did not have any real evidence.

In fact, it is not surprising that Wang Wei and Tian Li ignored this point, because Chen Yiming's sequence retelling of "The Usual Suspects" was incomplete and he omitted the crucial last twist.

Bao Wending vividly fills in the large gaps between the truck case and the cargo ship case involving the five suspects. The logic is strict, the details are true, and it sounds very reasonable.

However, when he walked out of the police station at the end of the movie, the police accidentally discovered something strange.

The "celebrities" and "veterans" in Chinatown whom Bao was so familiar with made him confident in Bao's identity. Without exception, the names of many people appeared in the police information bulletin posted on the whiteboard in the office.

And on the bottom of the coffee cup in his hand, the two traditional Chinese characters for "Xiao Lin" were clearly written, which was the name of the underground businessman Bao Datan mentioned.

At this time, the police realized that Bao Wendan's identity and confession were unreliable, and the real mastermind might have slipped away under his nose.

This is the last and biggest twist in "The Usual Suspects". It can be called a five-minute turning point that reverses the entire film.

The reason why this reversal is possible is that the screenwriter subtly arranged a seemingly unnecessary but actually critical precondition.

Facts have proved that this strategy is very effective. The policeman's subconscious obsession with the former criminal policeman made him "willingly" misled, and he cleverly uncovered the loopholes deliberately left by Bao Qinwen, thus identifying the former criminal policeman as the mastermind behind the scenes.

In the movie, the policeman did not initially come for the cargo ship case. His real purpose was to track down the criminal evidence of the former criminal policeman, so he arrived belatedly, arriving at the Chinatown police station at the moment when Bao was about to be released on bail.

The mainstream view is that Bao Wendiao is Caesar, because there are some sideways descriptions of Caesar in the movie, such as close-ups of gold lighters and gold watches, and his habit of taking action personally to silence rumors.

Interestingly, these four forces can all find corresponding relationships in "The Usual Suspects", and the outsider Bao Wendao perfectly reflects a "professional" active in Chinatowns in different countries.

There are natural conflicts and tensions between the Chinatown gangs and the local gangs in the city where they are located. The Chinatown Police Department and the city police also have various intrigues.

That is Bao DaTing and the police. These two opponents throughout the film are both away from home in Chinatown.

Therefore, Chen Yiming believes that just because Bao Wentan is not familiar with Chinatown, he cannot be Caesar, but more like a "professional" hired by Caesar as a cleaner.

This is also the main reason why Chen Yiming told Wang Wei and the others about the "revamp" of "The Usual Suspects". This film built a framework that is both open and flexible, while leaving behind a classic character with a full aftertaste.

Chinatown is a transnational cultural concept and a transnational community concept.

It’s perfect for transplanting into the Chinatown universe.

Caesar, the godfather who has never revealed his true identity, a former criminal police officer with a complex background whose life and death are unpredictable, and the mysterious pair of Bao Wentan and Xiao Lin, are all the tails that can extend the subsequent storyline.

With this fact made clear, new questions arise about his relationship with Caesar that were not answered in the original film.

Pao was obviously not a well-informed Chinatown gangster, otherwise he would not have risked being exposed by making up a story using the local names on the whiteboard.

In short, there are many mysteries to be solved in "The Usual Suspects". Director Bryan Singer and starring Kevin Spacey have not answered them one by one. Since there is no news about the sequel, these mysteries have been silent among the fans, and there is no standard anymore. Answer.

At the same time, there is another possibility. Bao was secretly hired by another underworld force to commit a major crime in order to transfer the attention and anger of the police to Caesar.

However, fundamentally speaking, these descriptions also come from Bao Datiao's confession and there is no other supporting evidence. Although Caesar was well-known in Chinatown, no one had ever seen him.

Bao Wenqing was keenly aware of the police's "excessive" attention to the former criminal policeman, so he decided to assign the suspicion to the former criminal policeman who "faked his death".

Gangsters from different Chinatowns are inextricably linked because they are all Chinese.

Using this movie to launch the Chinatown universe is a perfect fit.

The original film was released in 1995. At that time, crime movies were basically not related to surveillance technology, making it possible for Bao to "talk nonsense".

If the film is moved to the 2010s, the environments of Nuts, Europe, and China are obviously no longer applicable. The whereabouts of the five living people are difficult to conceal, and Bao's confession is too easy to expose. But it's different if it's Chinatown in a Southeast Asian country. Chinese audiences have the impression that it's old and retro, and the lack of cameras is not inconsistent at all.

The discussion ended here. Wang Wei, Tian Li and Li Zhun took their respective records and went back to retreat to write the script.

The next discussion meeting is scheduled for half a month.

At that time, the person who will serve as the party A of All Evil will not be director Wang Wei, but producer Chen Yiming.

Chen Yiming naturally kept the reversal of the ending of the original film well hidden. He was looking forward to what new possibilities Wang Wei and the others would bring to this story.

After returning, Chen Yiming resumed his long-lost idle rhythm, and also took time to write a draft of the script for "The Usual Suspects".

In addition to "magically changing" the film's background to make it fit the Chinatown universe, several inconsistencies in the original film were also corrected.

For example, the time interval between the truck case and the cargo ship case in the original film was as long as half a year. This was reasonable in the 1990s, but unrealistic in the 2010s.

Chen Yiming reduced the time between the two cases to one month.

In the original film, what was missing in the truck case was a batch of arms. This was only a minor case in the martial arts-rich Nuts, but in Southeast Asia, where guns are generally banned, it was nothing short of an uproar. No matter how tough the background was, the five suspects would not be able to get away easily.

Therefore, when Chen Yiming told the story, he set the background in the Philippines, where there are anti-government armed forces.

However, the turbulent Philippines is not an ideal filming location. Chen Yiming prefers Thailand or Malay, where the society is stable. Therefore, the truck case at the beginning of the film had to be "magically modified", and the missing goods were set by Chen Yiming to be smuggled mobile phones.

Then there is the perpetrator of the cargo ship case. In the original film, it was a Hungarian gang. Chen Yiming changed it to the Annan gang. The same reason was for the convenience of traveling abroad for filming. It was too easy to be set as a local gang.

Chen Yiming didn't want to see Annan anyway, and that place was excluded from his list of filming locations from the beginning.

Moreover, in the old Hong Kong movies, the Annan gang has always been the imaginary enemy of the Chinese character, and they always take the blame.

In addition, he also went through the casting criteria in advance so that he was well aware of them.

The role of Bao Wenwen naturally belongs to Duan Yining. Chen Yiming believes that Wang Wei's first choice will be Lao Duan, after all, he has an old relationship with him from previous cooperation.

The role of the policeman is a headstrong and conceited person in a position of power. Logically speaking, it shouldn't be difficult to choose. The key is that the temperament should match that of Lao Duan, because the two have a lot of rivalry scenes.

Compared with Kevin in the original film, Duan Yining's personal characteristics are more gloomy, and he is more restrained when dismounting. This requires the policeman who plays the role not to follow the conventional manic route, otherwise the atmosphere of the whole scene will be completely different. .

Chen Yiming inspected his bag, and the most suitable face turned out to be Hang Xiaoming.

However, Brother Xiaoming's acting skills were not up to par with the old one. Chen Yiming was not sure, so he had to audition.

Next is the former criminal policeman who has the third most scenes, and the leader of the five-man gang. It is best to find a middle-aged uncle who is both good and evil. If Hou Tianlai is more than ten years younger, he will be a killer. It is a pity.

The gunman, the liar and the gun maker are three fringe people on the street, and the acting requirements are not too high. If you choose people based on their faces, you won't make big mistakes.

The gunman can be a cooler guy, the liar can be a frivolous handsome guy, and the gun maker can be as ordinary as possible.

The Taibos who have acted in "Mulan" can cover it perfectly. Their positions and images are very suitable. However, Chen Yiming does not intend to speak on these three roles and fully respects Wang Wei's choice.

Then there is Xiao Lin, Bao Wentan's partner. He should be a respectable and honest person. He only needs a few cameos in the scenes. Teacher Hou Yong is good.

After checking the actors, Chen Yiming discovered that there were only these seven main actors in "The Usual Suspects", and the only three main characters were Bao Daqing, a policeman, and a former gangster.

Such a simple cast configuration resulted in such complex plot changes. The Hollywood screenwriters of that era were really talented.

(End of this chapter)