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Ah yes, Future Cops
The unlicensed Street Fighter movie made in Hong Kong
Featuring Son Goku from Dragon Ball
And sexy Mario Brothers
Look, it's complicated
It's not a very good movie
The pacing is all over the place
Character motivations are paper thin
And the humor is hit or miss
Yet, despite being a cheap cash in from 90s Hong Kong cinema
This movie is generally well liked by the cult movie community
Behind this film I swriter/director/producer Wong Jing
The shlockmeister of Hong Kong cinema
Certainly a controversial figure
But just like his movies
Wong Jing's filmmaking is generally well liked and well recieved
Despite his propensity for quantity over quality
Love him or hate him
Wong Jing was, at one time, the backbone of Hong Kong cinema
Keeping everyone employed
And keeping the film industry alive
Through sheer productivity and marketability
And to do that
Wong Jing has to make his movie quickly And cheaply
That means Future Cops is the perfect case study
For indie filmmakers who have no money and time
So, today, let's dive into this shlocky mess
And see how the master himself wrote this movie quickly
How he managed to keep the cost low
And maybe, even appreciate the filmmaking techniques
Behind this unassuming director
Wong Jing
He might just be more of an artist than you think
[Why You Should Watch Hong Kong's Knock-Off Street Fighter]
[Chapter One]
In the distant future of 2043
Hong Kong crime lord, the General, has been apprehended
And will face trial in a week
To save their boss, Kent, Thai King, and Toyota
Travel back to the year 1993 to assassinate the young judge
Before he can take office
And our heroes, the Future Cops
Ti Man, Broomhead, and Sing, follow suit
Those are real character names, by the way
Yes, they are all knock-off Street Fighter characters
But the story also sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?
That's right, Terminator 2
Released 2 years prior to this movie
And was a massive hit in Hong Kong
This is the primary way Wong Jing manages to write so quickly
By "borrowing" ideas
Bad guys holding students hostage in a school?
Fight Back to School II, released a year prior
A coward student being bullied
A reference to Doraemon
With matching character names
Even the opening action scene starts with a Star Wars shot
There is a reference to Super Mario World
Hong Kong horseracing
And football, which is also popular in Hong Kong
Wong Jing is this pop-culture sponge
Absorbing everything he sees
And applying them to his works
By using these pre-existing elements
The amount of creative work needed is drastically cut down
The premise and the characters are pre-baked
All he needed to do is to link them together
And tell a cohesive story
And THAT is where Wong Jing's genius comes in
I talked about the worst Chinese movie on this channel before
Pure Hearts: Into Chinese Showbiz
In that movie, virtually everything is a trope
Sugar Mama
Suicide
Gang violence
Sexual bribery
"Put it back on!"
But in that movie
Every trope element remains just that, a trope
In Future Cops
These tropes are full-fledge stories
The Future Cops from a dystopia
Finds love in the present day
The main character being bullied
Leads to him fighting back with the help of the Future Cops
In turn, leads to him being prideful and cocky
Causing him to break up with his love
They are cliche stories
But are stories nonetheless
This means Wong Jing doesn't just absorb the media
He studies them
Digest them
He knows, very well, what makes these tropes work
Indeed, Wong Jing is known to be a massive cinephile
The only reason all these tropes are pop culture stuff
Is because they served as a selling point
Street Fighter meets Dragon Ball meets Mario
Who wouldn't want to watch that?
But when he lets loose
That's when we get a chance to peek into his mind
And realize how vast his cinematic knowledge is
In this music montage
We see him paying homage to Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Lover"
Zhang Yimou's "A Terra-Cotta Warrior"
"Ghost"
As well as a movie so obscure I can't find any information on
That is some deep cuts
That's the amount of knowledge you need
Just to make a shlocky film
So, if you are a filmmaker
Study movies, a lot of movies
Popular
Art house
Domestic
And foreign
But also study pop culture
When you are in tune with the world
That's when you can write with ease
And with efficiency
[Chapter Two]
Now we know how he writes fast
But how does he shoot fast
And more importantly, cheap
In truth, unless he's intentionally going for that grimy CAT III look
His movies almost never look cheap
In preproduction, Wong Jing cleverly decides
To shoot the film mostly in a high school
Why?
Because high schools are empty in the summer
So it's cheap to rent
It's a big location, with varied scenery
It has offices for the crew
Cafeteria for the craft
Individual classrooms for actors and make-ups
But on the production front
Wong Jing also has a few tricks
One way to reduce cost and time
Is his use of two shots and group shots
Now, in a regular movie
The most basic way to shoot a dialogue scene
Is shot/reverse shot
You see one guy talking
And then you cut to the other guy responding
That means you have to shoot the dialogue scene at least twice
And no, because of lighting set up and crew members off screen
You don't often get to shoot with two cameras at once
In Future Cops
Shot/reverse shots are almost non-existent
Almost every single dialogue scene is framed like this
With two or more characters in the frame
Because you only need to shoot the dialogue scene once
You cut down the shooting time by half
In any ordinary director's hand
This sort of composition would be very flat and boring
But Wong Jing, through clever staging
Always gives it a sense of dynamism
There is always movement in the frame
And there is always foreground, midground, and background
It's an old school technique used by the likes of Orson Welles
And Stephen Spielberg
Yes, I just compared Wong Jing
To Orson Welles and Spielberg
Sue me
Actually don't
Now take a look at his action
A traditional kung fu film needs a lot of good choreography
Which requires a lot of time to practice and get ready
That causes money
"More than a 120 takes"
"Do you have the patience or not?"
Nope
Wong Jing style action is much more comedy driven
There actually isn't a lot going on
See, they aren't exchanging blows
But see how the camera
The actors
And the background are all in motion
Fast motion
It feels way more energetic than just a bunch of people flailing around
Additionally, Wong Jing understands that the most important part of the hit
Isn't the hit itself
It's the aftermath, the reaction
The crash
In his cheaply produced fight scenes
All the budget and time went to shots of people being toss around
And since the end of a fight feels impactful
It retroactively makes the entire fight more intense
These stunts do take time to prepare
But they can be shot with body doubles, without the actors present
So it saves money
It seems Wong Jing has an endless amount of techniques
To maximize impact
And minimize cost
But to talk about them all would cost us another hour
But through just these few techniques
We can see a pattern
When face time and financial limitation
Wong Jing's solution isn't to cheap out
But to find an alternative solution
There may be less resources allocated to his movie
But there is just as much effort into making it presentable
[Chapter Three]
Now we come to the chapter
In which we have to confront the reality
That shlockmeister Wong Jing...
Has always been a solid filmmaker
The opening sequence of the film is actually really fun!
Despite, in reality, it is really small in scale
Just one car and a bunch of static extras on wires
But it feels big
A lot of the shots are at a low angle
Looking up at the scene
Making everything seem bigger
The editing is fast but cohesive
Action, reaction
Shoot, explosion
There is always something new going on
From laser
To gunfight
To car crash
To foot chase
To fistfight
All within the span of a few minutes
Now look at how he edits exploisions
His repeated cuts extend the spectacle
But it's edited quickly
So it still feels like a single explosion
Instead of an instant replay
Even minor explosions aren't glossed over
Every small explosion sends small fragments flying
Shelf Items
Glass
Papers
It accentuates the force of the explosion
Even the smallest details are not without thought
Wong Jing knows how to dress a scene on a budget
Using balloons to add a dash of color
In an otherwise white and flat frame
Adding color liquid to give the lab a little bit more life
Even the hanging clothes on the pastel wall feel deliberate
Their colors go together really well
This is why Wong Jing was respected, and at times...
Loved by filmgoers
He makes crappy movies on the cheap and on a schedule
But within his work
There is care
From the biggest set-pieces
Down to a single dialogue shot
Wong Jing is cheap
But he is not lazy
[Conclusion]
So, do I like this movie?
Heck no
But I think you should still watch it
The movie opens with a self-deprecating joke
A poster featuring "Fight Back to School" part 90
From producer Wong Jing Jing
Clearly, Wong Jing is self-aware through all this
He knew what he was making
And he nevertheless put his best into it
And that alone is worthy of study
We have seen other filmmakers with limitations
Nabwana I.G.G. produced his war epics in a ghetto in Uganda
And despite all the limitations
His films are loved and praised
Kevin Smith made Clerks inside a convenient store
And blockbuster master Christopher Nolan's debut film
Has a budget of 6000 bucks
That's why you should watch Future Cops
And a lot of other Wong Jing movies
We all have limitations
How you deal with it
Will determine the quality of your work
Beside
It is still the best Street Fighter movie to date