Before the release of "Manslaughter", no one would have thought that this small and medium-cost crime drama film supervised by Chen Sicheng would achieve huge box office results and excellent audience reputation after its release - 1.333 billion box office results and 7.5 word-of-mouth ratings on Douban.
Compared with the previous game, "Manslaughter 2" has already attracted much attention before its official release. First of all, in terms of cast, compared with "Manslaughter" two years ago, today's "Manslaughter 2" in addition to the male lead actor Xiao Yang of the previous work, also invited Ren Dahua, Wen Yongshan, Li Zhiting, Zhang Shi and other powerful actors from the three places across the straits.
Secondly, in terms of story theme, although "Manslaughter" and "Manslaughter 2" do not have the continuation of the story plot and character relationship, and adopt new characters and new stories, the two films are highly consistent in the theme core and expression methods - doing their best to protect the precarious family and family affection, showing the choices of ordinary people in extreme circumstances, and expounding a deep understanding of human care...
Of course, the two works have both the core elements of continuity and inheritance, but also many differences. For example, in the previous work, the male protagonist Li Weijie has a clear opponent, that is, the police inspector Lavin who lost his son. Because of this, although the audience who opens the perspective of God has been experiencing the repeated reversals of the plot, it can allow the audience to quickly substitute into the story and think and analyze the problem from the perspective of Li Weijie and the police.
However, "Manslaughter 2" obviously does not continue this plot line. At the beginning of the film, Lin Rilang controls The SunTang Hospital with a gun, causing a strong visual impact on the audience in front of the screen, and also setting up a suspense - what makes an ordinary person like Lin Rilang choose to take the risk of hijacking the hospital.
Through the following interludes, the audience gradually understands the seemingly fierce robber in front of him like a matryoshka doll, but also has another identity - an ordinary father who only wants the life of his children.
What would you do if you suddenly learned that your son, who was healthy and active, was suddenly diagnosed with a serious illness that not only required sky-high treatment costs, but also faced extremely high risks at any time? Running around fundraising? Sell your house? Desperately working? Struggling to go to the media for help? Or even to borrow usury? And all this, Lin Rilang has done.
When he finally raised all the costs of his son's treatment, he rushed to the doctor with great excitement, only to be told that the hard-won heart was gone. At that moment, this middle-aged man who had been swallowing his anger and pleasing face in the face of all kinds of unfair realities could no longer control his emotions, and he tightly grabbed the doctor's collar and expressed his helpless cries and anger... Security guards can drag Lin Rilang away, but they can't drag away the heart of a father who wants to save his child. As Lin Rilang himself put it: "You don't know what a father can do to save his children..."
The hostages who were originally afraid of Lin Rilang were also gradually moved by this desperate father, in a sense, they were not trapped hostages, more like witnesses to the gradual end of Lin Rilang's tragic story.
As the plot continues to progress, Lin Zhilang's desperate abduction of the hospital has attracted more and more people's attention, media reports, public voices, and officials' suicides... It's all about the missing heart, and behind the heart that can save people, a shocking shady scene is gradually being pulled out... Who stole the heart that should have belonged to Lin Zhilang's child?
The role of the father in the film is not limited to Lin Zhilang alone, the police officer Zhang Zhengyi, the mayor Long Dan, Xiao Shan's father and the father who is anxiously waiting for the child to be born as a hostage. The different ways they treat their children paint a realistic and delicate portrait of the fathers in the film.
As the most stark contrast in the film, the mayor Long Dan played by Jiang Haowen and the male protagonist Lin Zhilang, although their identities are very different, they have a common identity as a father, and in the face of how to save their children, the two fathers have completely different choices, inadvertently determining the different endings of the two at the end of the story, making the audience sigh and at the same time can't help but fall into deep thought.
As a father, in the face of a seriously ill and dying child, even if there is only a glimmer of life, I think they will do their best to save their children. But the difficulty is that under the background of cruel social reality, they are also fathers who have their own bottom line and guidelines while saving their children, and stick to this bottom line.
As the hostage grandfather said, some children are children, but some children are not ordinary children. Although they are all teenagers of the same youth, they are also at the critical juncture of life and death, but the difference between the family situation makes the story of the little worm and the mayor's child have a different ending, and some children are born to win the advantages that ordinary children may not be able to achieve in this life, I believe that many viewers will see here, and they will also sigh like me.
Whether it is the dean who is full of interests exchange, or the dignified Secretary General Satin, or the organ donation director and mayor who should serve the people, the film outlines many people with different images but ugly faces for the audience in front of the screen through vivid plots. In the face of these people's obstruction, can Lin Zhilang's actions really save the lives of his children? I think the moment he drew his gun in the hospital, his heart was also full of doubts and trepidation.
But the emergency situation in which the life of the worm hangs on the line is not allowed to be weighed more by Lin Zhilang. Xiao Shan, who was in the same ward as The Worm, once blew out the candle of the birthday cake for the Worm, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the world, leaving her father crying alone. Lin Rilang, who has a deep understanding of life and death parting in the process of accompanying the insect to see a doctor, obviously cannot continue to spend like this - what if the next person crouching at the door of the ward and crying alone is himself? Even if there is only a glimmer of life, as long as the child still has a glimmer of hope, he will do his best to protect him, is this not what a father should do?
Among the hostages taken by Lin Zhilang, the young couple anxiously waiting for the birth of their children is also impressive. As a father, Lin Zhilang said calmly and kindly, "Once I was just like you." In reality, fathers who are new fathers have also had times when they waited anxiously outside the ward, showing urgency and joy at the same time. However, later they were also complained about by their own children for being cold and rigid, is this really the case? Many times, fathers always express their emotions differently.
Imagine if you were Lin Zhilang in the film, what would you do? Is it to queue up to submit a subsidy application and then wait for thirty or forty days with little hope? Is it to watch your beloved child step by step towards death? As a small person in society, we are often humble and helpless, but this does not mean that we are inferior, born as human beings, who can say who is more noble than whom? Who is inferior to whom? Regardless of the ending of the story, his spirit and courage to defend his rights to the death are touching, and he finally sticks to the bottom line, preferring to trade his life for his life, and perfectly implements the line "You can't imagine what a father can do to save his children". Perhaps it is precisely because of this that Zhang Zhengyi, who had a parental tone when calling at the beginning of the film, finally learned to let go at the end of the film, and calmly handled his relationship with his children and reached a reconciliation with his daughter.
In the film, Lin Rilang wrote the words "Sometimes, death is also a victory", telling children how to look at the world, how to face the difficulties of growing up, how to protect their mothers, warm and moving words make this story full of tragedy from the beginning turn to the light, we will all face difficulties, just like fireflies will lose their light under the dazzling light, but there is no eternal dilemma, only people who overcome difficulties and strive to survive. It is a fact that reality exists cruelly, and it is also true that there are imperfections, but there will always be people and things that can make people feel that there is still hope and light in this world.
Just like the reporter Li Anqi in the film who risked her life in order to break through the clouds and seek the truth, although she still held prejudice against Lin Rilang at the beginning of the story, and had a lofty posture, but as Lin Rilang told about the various injustices she encountered in order to save her children, under the guidance of professional ethics and human nature, she transformed into Lin Richang's right-hand man to challenge the unfair reality. First, he went alone to investigate the head of the organ donation section, and even almost killed by the latter. Later, he exposed the injustice to the public at the scene of the hijacking incident. In the whole movie, it is arguably one of the most obvious characters whose metamorphosis is.
Another example is Dr. Dama, who was supposed to be killed by a man who had lost his wife on the day of the hijacking, but was accidentally interrupted by Lin Zhilang's abduction. After becoming hostage with Dr. Damma, the man was ready to kill the doctor who had risked his wife's life.
But in the face of the sudden collapse of the ceiling, Dr. Damma sacrificed himself to save the pregnant woman in a wheelchair. How could such a doctor be a man who disregarded life? As Damma said to the man, it's not that I don't want to save your wife, it's that they sent it too late. The two eventually worked together to save the pregnant woman.
Many times, the tension between doctors and patients is caused by untimely communication, not because doctors do not provide timely assistance or family members are unwilling to cooperate. Of course, although it can be seen from the later plot that Dama is a good doctor, he did not communicate in time when the man's wife was killed, and almost caused himself to fly into trouble, which is obviously not correct.
At the same time, on the question of whether to adhere to the principle and save the heart of Lin Zhilang's child, even if he had a fierce debate with the dean, he was still weak and compromised in the end, and still let people see that there were shortcomings in this character, but it was these shortcomings that made this character more real and three-dimensional, and he did not do his best to do surgery for the worm at the end of the film.
After more than two years of waiting, the plot performance of "Manslaughter 2" can be said to be worth the ticket price, although there are still some problems in some detailed transitions, but overall, "Manslaughter 2" is definitely a must-see film in the New Year file, and Xiao Yang truly interpreted the "most ruthless father". Even if the audience can guess the ending of the story, they definitely can't guess the shock that the father's love can bring to the audience! This movie is definitely worth walking into the cinema and savoring! (Of course, paper towels are absolutely essential)