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.
要想明白吳宇森和周潤發(fā)合作的這部影片為何能夠超越兩人合作的另外兩部在風格上更有成就的影片《喋血雙雄》和《辣手神探》而成功獲得一代人的關注，可能就相當于追溯香港的影迷歷史。吳宇森這部影響深遠的喋血英雄片《英雄本色》的確融合了電影領域的多個最佳賣點：該片是對1967年龍剛導演作品《英雄本色》的忠實改編，同時又添加了兄弟情以及過去武俠片中推崇的義。吳宇森受影響最多的是他的師父張徹導演的那些武俠片，他曾給張徹做過副導演。一邊是狄龍和張國榮扮演的兄弟倆站在法律的兩邊上演精彩對立戲碼，另一邊，周潤發(fā)扮演的Mark魅力十足，也為這部經(jīng)典動作影片增色不少：誰能忘掉他用點著的鈔票點煙的那個畫面呢？他的高傲自大只會被他自己的忠誠和英雄主義超越，在我們的心中，Mark就是我們每個人。