To The Fore
Introduction
“To the Fore” (破风)
is a Hong Kong Chinese sports drama film which filmed in Taiwan and other
countries including China, Korea, Mongolia and Switzerland. The running time of
this film was 125 minutes and it was released on 6 August 2015 in Hong Kong and
7 August 2015 in China and Taiwan. This film is based upon real event. In 2015,
this film was selected as the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy
Awards in Hong Kong but it was neither nominated nor shortlisted.
This film was directed by
Dante Lam Chiu Yin (林超贤) who is a film director of the Hong Kong action cinema.
Dante has many other successful films such as The Beast Stalker (证人),
The Stool Pigeon (线人), Operation Mekong (湄公河行动),
The Viral Factor(逆战), Unbeatable (激战)
and others. In 2008, he won the Best Director of Hong Kong Film Award on The
Beast Stalker.
The starring of this film
are Eddie Yu-Yan Peng (彭于晏), Choi Siwon (崔始源),
Shawn Dou (竇驍) and Wang Luo Dan (王珞丹).
This film talked about the story of four young people joined the top tournament
in the cycling team. In the brutal competition, everyone must to face from
friendship to love, reputation and sacrifice personal and team aspects of the
choice and test story. The perfect match between three actors helped them to
win all the matches. However, when Jeong Ji-Won accepted the posture of the
winner, Wan Qiu Ming and Qiu Tian understood he was only the winner (lead-out
man 冲线手), and themselves always the wind hand. They are
defeated by own demons and gradually lost their team spirit. After that, they
separated themselves and had new experiences. When they meet again, can they
fight and win their psychological disorder and make the miracle? Who can become
the king of cycling?
In this film, Wang Qiu
Ming (Eddie Yu) was a professional, aggressive, romantic and interesting bike
athlete. His personality weakness caused the peak of his career life fell into
the bottom of the cause. Luckily, he overcome the weakness and returned to the
high point of the life again. Jeong Ji-Won (Choi Siwon) was a Korean cyclist
which lived in Taiwan. He was a cool all-around cyclist, was known as "Red
line king". Although he looked like ruthless, but he was a righteous
person. Furthermore, Qiu Tian (Shawn Dou) acted as a “wind hand” (破风手)
with introverted personality. Huang Shiyao (Wang Luo Dan) was a female cyclist
which came from China. She appreciated by the coach and became one of Virgo
three women's stage race drivers. After half year of effort, she became a new
famous cyclist.
A representative quote in
the movie is “No fear, no regrets”, when Qiu Tian felt upset that they do not
believe themselves can win the match, Qiu Ming told him this quote that taught
by the coach. As a cyclist, they must face all the fears and try the best to
complete the match although the result will be affected by either weather or
strategy. After they do their best, they would not regret the decision they
did. This quote encouraged Qiu Tian joined the match again and work together
with his teammates.
Main Body
This movie can be evaluated at several parts:
Main
Theme
"To the Fore" is an encourage and full of
sport spirit movie. The theme of this story talked about the story of young
people joined the top tournament in the cycling match. The story-line and the
theme are unique in the movie. “No fear, no regrets” is the main quote to the
cyclist in this movie.
The
actors
In order to show the reality of the bicycle race, the
actors received the professional guidance and training. Within few months, they
accepted the “devil training”, that is ride the bicycle about 11 hours every
day. One of the main characters, Eddie Yu rode the bicycle in all the mountains
in Hong Kong which about 120km every day. Shawn Dou hurt his legs about 11
times but he didn’t give up on training. Wang Luo Dan needs to practice 50
sprint training, 20 seconds sprint with 40 seconds to rest. Besides that, the
actors and actress used their own "blood" and "meat" to
ride the bicycle under 42 degree Tengger dessert and the peak of the Meishan 36
bend. “Dream never run away, only you
have escaped, from your ever-supporting family” is one of the encourage cite
read by Qiu Tian in the movie. Although the cyclists face many problems in the
career life, they never give up on their dreams. Brave, persistence and never give up to
complete the task can be learnt from them. The hard training made them become
stronger. I admired them as they really focus on the real training of a cyclist
although they are actor or actress.
Shooting
aspect
Main shots in this movie used are extreme long shots,
long shots, medium shots and close up. Mostly, the camera shots used are pan
shot, truck and arc. The adoption of high speed photography and close up
shot comes out the better shot effects. Next, the unique layout of the car
array, strong sense of rhythm can be found in the movie. The overall rhythm of
this film is fast and compact, but also to guarantee the whole view of the
continuous tension. With the gradual progress of the race, plot flow is also
reach the climax by step by step across. The shooting effects also ensure the
audience can feel the enthusiasm of the cyclists in overcoming the physical and
psychological during the races. To take a good scene, the crew had to take a
four-hour drive to reach the Italian snow-capped mountains. In order to have
the best shooting results, the film shot across many countries such as China,
Taiwan, Korea, Italy and others which about 1799km. 1404 professional riders
are invited to join this film and around 80 people face crash during the shot.
It takes about four months at outdoor to complete this film with hot summer
weather.
After watched this film,
I have learnt few values that can help to improve myself in the life. These
values are:
Teamwork
In this movie, we know that teamwork is very important
to win a competition. The strategies between team members are assigned
according to the roles relative to the opponents. The teamwork helps the
cyclists to burst free from the other teams and become the first team to cross
the finishing line. “I will use action to make up for my misdemeanors and
regain everyone’s trust” given by Qiu Ming in the match. Although he did wrong
in the past and lost the trust, but he determined himself that he still can
work together with a team by action. During the competition, Qiu Ming and Qiu
Tian work together with teammates, although they hurt their legs but they never
give up and finally they become the winner. In fact, when we work together
within a team, we can learn teamwork and gain tacit understanding. It helps us
to complete a task better within short time.
Forgiveness
The argument will happen when everyone has different
opinion but no compromise. For example, Ji-Won scold Qiu Ming that he didn’t
follow the instruction while Qiu Ming angry because they already won the match
but why Ji-Won must continue scold him. The argument made they lost the team
spirit and dismissed their team. Furthermore, Qiu Ming and Qiu Tian also had
the argument when they chasing someone they like who was the same person. The
argument made they lost the friendship. Luckily, the forgiveness reconnected
the friendship between Ji-Won, Qiu Ming and Qiu Tian.
The
power of love
One of the scene in the movie was Shiyao faced the
huge problem when she joined the cycling match. She fell down from the bicycle
and hurt her tendon so that she cannot walk in the future even ride the
bicycle. This episode is entirely
based on the real event. The power of love between Qiu Ming and Shiyao let Qiu
Ming decided to donate his tendon to Shiyao. As legs are most important part of
a cyclist, when Qiu Ming decided to donate his tendon, he must face the high
risk that he could not ride as fast as the previous time. But, the power of
love taught him sacrificed himself to save another and Shiyao did not know
about this new. She only knew when she can walk again and saw Qiu Ming accepted
the physiotherapy. In the real life, many parents also sacrifice their rest
time and try to have more jobs to earn more salary for the children. This
taught us need to learn thanksgiving that people who loves us.
Conclusion
Overall, “To the Fore” is a terrific, aspired and
encouraging movie. The sport spirit of the cyclist encourages me never give up
when complete a task. For example, although the cyclist fell down from the
bicycle during the competition and injured, they still climb up and continue
ride the bicycle to finish the match. “To the Fore” created a new image to the
audience as it does not same as other sport movies, it is the movie that can
encourage someone with the spiritual. When I watched the trailer, I already
think about it can encourage me. I never regret to watch this movie because it
helps me to think about myself how to become a better person in the life. This
movie not only talked about the cyclist life, it also moves a person to become better
in the world and makes this world become more different.
