On February 15, 2012, without prior notice, a certain department discarded the mattresses, warm clothing, ID cards and other personal belongings of more than 40 street friends as garbage under the overpass of Tongzhou Street in the name of "clearing the scene and washing the ground", which caused social concern.
At that time, a student of journalism at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong went to an interview to write about the incident, it was Li Junshuo, who nine years later he adapted the matter into "Turbid Water Drifting", which was shortlisted for 12 awards at the Golden Horse Awards, becoming the biggest winner of the awards.
Street friends, also known as vagrants, rough sleepers, homeless people, homeless people, but no matter what the name, it seems that it is difficult to wash away the existing impression of society. Dirty, poor, filthy, smelly, these adjectives contrast to the people in the city who can still live clean, glorious, and secure lives.
In almost every city in the world, you will see their figures, they are in the park, under the overpass, at the station, in every corner of the city, quietly living, most people will only hurried past them, will not think much about who they are? How did it get here?
Although "Turbid Water Rafting" is based on real events, it blurs the characters and fictionalizes the plot. The protagonist becomes the imaginary community of street friends.
Such a technique is the same as Zhao Ting's filming of "Nomadic Life" in 2020, trying to return to the street friends a more three-dimensional and more diversified life from a caring point of view, but it is also a far-sighted, imaginative creation, they not only shoot people, but also shoot social difficulties, only focus on care, and try not to criticize, whether it is criticizing the object of care, or criticizing the system, the official and the capitalists.
However, "Turbid Water Rafting" does not have the wilderness nature of "Nomadic Life", and he focuses on people who do not even have a caravan, and there is almost no place for people in the crowded city.
The film allows us to see what life looks like for rough sleepers. They are not only surviving in the dark corners of the city, they are also like migratory birds, they will pick up materials to build their own houses, find family and friends, they have the need for love, there are cigarettes and alcohol entertainment, they also work hard, but the income is unstable, so they do not continue to eat and drink, and there is no way to "go upstairs".
In the film, he also fictionalizes a young sleeper who hangs around with a harmonica, who seems out of place with the group, who cannot speak, and is a "forbidden" character. It seems to be a symbol, a metaphor for the protesters on the street, who speak loudly and cry out for help, but no one hears them, and in the end we find that he does not have to live on the streets, he has a warm family, but which is the life he wants, no one understands.
In fact, not only Hong Kong, but other places have been trying to "clean up" these people, so as not to hinder the city's appearance or become a criminal concern outside the system. In fact, it is far from enough to provide food and shelter from the end, because we have not seen the source of the problem, or we have seen but cannot solve it: we cannot solve the problem of high unemployment and low income, we cannot solve the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor with too high housing prices, and we cannot solve the problem of insufficient family care capacity and the lack of education and childcare public facilities.
We only see the problem of them appearing on the streets, but deliberately ignore the reasons behind them. It is as if people are thrown into the city, they should know how to survive in peace, but they do not realize that the system is getting more and more dangerous, and everyone has a different foothold.
To be honest, "Turbid Drifting" because of the vagueness of the characters, he wants to present the sentient beings of a real society, so there is no main story and no main characters, it is likely to be a forgotten movie, like the epitome of the sleeper in this era, even if he is seen and heard, no one cares. Society thinks that washing the ground will drive them out, and the film makes them use their lives to ignite a raging fire to illuminate and warm this indifferent society.
Do we realize that they are not far away from us, or even only a line away, and that there are teachers, cooks, waiters, clerks, and bosses among the sleepers, but because of life encounters, at some point there is a crack, a reason that they themselves can't control, and they have left the normal track of mainstream social cognition. It is they who are being looted today, and it may be each of us.
Therefore, the film seems to attract people's attention to this wandering group, but also to attract people's attention to the root cause of their wandering. Why do people who have the ability and once had a legitimate career come to this point now? In such a situation, who can help them and who is responsible for it?
The film is small-scaled, focusing on small groups to show a topic that is avoided. By restoring the appearance of the life of the rough sleepers, examine the themes behind "Turbid Water Drifting". I think that's what movies are all about.