Film Review (To The Fore)

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.