Manslaughter 2 tells the story of a dilemma.
The male protagonist Lin Rilang, played by Xiao Yang, was originally just a poor screenwriter and an ordinary father. The family of three lived a poor and happy life.
But the accident struck suddenly, and his life took a sharp turn.
His son Xiao Worm was seriously ill and needed to undergo heart replacement surgery, and with his family's financial situation, he could hardly afford the cost of heart transplant surgery. People at the hospital advised him to take conservative treatment so that the child's final life could be better.
He refused to give up his child's life and did everything he could to raise money.
When he learned that the hospital had a matched heart, Lin Zhilang completed an almost impossible thing: in just one hour, he raised a huge amount of money for the operation.
But that's where the story really begins.
When Lin Zhilang rushed to the hospital with money, he received a phone call and learned that his heart had been robbed.
The hospital has given the adaptive heart to someone else, who is hidden behind an incomparably dark truth.
The time is pressing, the son's life is in danger, and he may not be able to wait for the next heart; and the validity period of the existing heart is only within eight hours.
Lin Zhilang had no choice but to take the risk, breaking into the emergency room of the hospital with a gun and abducting the medical staff and patients inside.
When he called out to the police, he clearly stated his appeal: I want a heart, and that heart was originally my son's.
"Manslaughter 2" is based on the American movie "Imminent", but when you see it here, you can already feel the difference between the two movies.
The paradox of "Imminent" is money: the poor can't afford to pay the high cost of surgery, so they can't survive.
The father, played by Denzel Washington, hijacked the hospital so that it could put his son's name on the transplant list.
And Lin Rilang's appeal is not on the transplant list, his son is already on the list. His appeal is a heart that has been snatched away for no reason.
Money is not the main contradiction of the story, and he is not a medical troublemaker. Although Lin Richang was poor, he still worked hard to raise medical expenses.
The real contradiction is that his hard work of obedience, fundraising, and queuing up is useless. The fruits of his efforts can be taken away directly.
He obeyed the rules, but the rules did not protect him; on the contrary, there were always some people, some unknown forces that he could not touch, who were above the rules.
So he had no choice but to break the rules and take risks.
At this level, "Manslaughter 2" can be said to have made a very careful adaptation.
This is also why from the entry point of the film alone, the two films are very different.
The beginning of "Imminent" is in chronological order, honestly laying out the previous situation, telling the origin of the matter: the contradiction lies in money, the male protagonist's family is not rich, and couples often quarrel over money; what is worse is that the child suddenly falls ill, and the high cost of surgery far exceeds the scope of his medical insurance...
At the beginning of "Manslaughter 2", Lin Rilang, played by Xiao Yang, hijacked the hospital.
As a robber, his style of acting is bold and sophisticated, and he never drags mud and water.
When he looks directly into the camera, that kind of empty and gloomy look can think of Li Weijie in "Manslaughter" and Song Yi in "Detective Chinatown 2".
That kind of look is frightening, and it reminds people of the abyss of human nature.
The whole city was stirred up by the hijacking, the police were facing a great enemy, the crowd of onlookers was both scared and excited, and the media was like flies smelling rotten flesh, smelling the wind.
They all wanted to know who Lin Zhilang was and why he was desperate.
This is also the first suspense set by the film: why did Lin Zhilang become a robber?
As the plot progresses, the film begins to tell the story of his past.
At the beginning, the audience will also misunderstand his plight as poverty, believing that Lin Zhilang did not have money to save his son before making this decision.
The hijacked patients in the emergency room can't help but retort, then if everyone does this because they don't have money, aren't you poor and you are justified, and the hospital is not messed up?
But in the end, the truth came out, and the problem had nothing to do with money.
Seeing this, whether it is the patients he abducted or the audience watching the live broadcast outside the hospital, they are touched by his story.
Ordinary people can empathize with this low-level father, because they will understand that Lin Rilang is indeed cornered.
He tried all the normal ways he could solve it, but to no avail. He was forced to this point.
So back to the original starting point, who are the real robbers?
It seems that Lin Zhilang plays the person who hijacks the hospital, but in fact, he does not dare to kill anyone at all.
Instead, the tragedy was caused by someone stealing the heart that belonged to his son. Those who are high up and cannot be seen are the real robbers.
Before watching the movie, many people, including myself, will feel very strange, why is the same adaptation and remake, and this movie is still called "Manslaughter 2"?
After watching the movie, there will be no more such doubts.
You may even feel that it is a very clever approach for the creator to choose to adapt "Imminent".
It seems that "Manslaughter 1" and "Manslaughter 2" tell completely different stories, but in fact, despite the superficial text, the two movies always have the same core.
The protagonists of the story are small people, fathers; and the story focuses on the choices made by ordinary people in extreme environments.
Whether it is Li Weijie of "Manslaughter 1" or Lin Rilang of "Manslaughter 2", in fact, he was an honest and docile good person at the beginning.
When Li Weijie saw others being harassed by Sang Kun in the noodle shop, he did not even dare to come forward, only daring to take advantage of Sang Kun's absence and sneakily remind the other party; and Lin Rilang, as a poor screenwriter, obviously changed the script version after version, and when surrounded by three party ars, he still did not dare to squeak a word.
So when you see such a cowardly and honest person, willing to take risks and become fierce, you will feel more sorry than afraid.
They are all weak, and the weak will only resist if they are forced into a desperate situation.
They don't have much, and they are deprived of the last living space. So once you resist, you must gamble on your entirety, even your life.
This choice itself carries a layer of tragedy. They know that no matter what the outcome, they will pay the price.
And the reason why they become desperate is only for their own children.
Both Li Weijie and Lin Rilang can endure poverty, hardship, and the oppression of life, but once the hurt becomes their own children, they can no longer endure.
As In Manslaughter 2, Lin Zhilang said to Dr. Damma: "You don't know what a father can do for his children." ”
This also constitutes the emotional core of the "Manslaughter" series: an ordinary family, an ordinary father, but can be righteous for love.
What the two "Manslaughter" do is to put ordinary people into an extreme environment, to explore the complexity, contradictions and struggles of human nature.
But in the end, there is only one foothold: maybe the male protagonist is a good person, maybe he is a bad person, but in the end, he is just a father.
Back to the title "Manslaughter".
Some people may still understand the word on the narrative level, "killing a person by mistake".
In Manslaughter 2, the interpretation of the word has undoubtedly become richer.
The "manslaughter" can be a small worm whose heart has been stolen and whose life is in danger.
It can also be Lin Rilang, who was wrapped up in public opinion, misunderstood, and "stigmatized" at the beginning of the story.
On a broader level, it may also refer to innocent ordinary people who live inside and outside the hospital, empathize with Lin Zhilang, and share a similar fate with him.
The film explores not only the manslaughter of someone, but also the manslaughter of a human nature.
Director Dai Mo also mentioned a sentence in the interview, the definition of a person is a layer of manslaughter.
Therefore, in these two movies, you will see the same shot: Qin Pei, who plays the protagonist's friend and actively speaks out for his guilt, and Chen Yucheng, who plays the journalist Li Anqi, both staring at the camera expressionlessly at the end of the film.
At this moment, the film breaks the fourth wall, and the perspective changes from the character to the audience.
Both works use a rather clever, blank approach to guide the audience to think about who is being "killed by mistake"; and whether we, as the audience, will also be wrapped up in public opinion in reality.
On Tuesday, the Peach Movie Group also organized a welfare movie, and the audience with the Peach Group watched this "Manslaughter 2" in advance.
It was obvious that most of the people present were almost all fans of the "Manslaughter" series, and they had come to the queue early, and the staff was startled by everyone's enthusiasm.
This time the style of custom ticket stubs is very different and widely acclaimed.
After watching the movie, we also received a lot of enthusiastic word-of-mouth feedback.
Obviously, it can be seen from the enthusiasm of the audience that in their minds, "Manslaughter 2" is a fairly successful work.
After watching the two movies, the "Manslaughter" IP has also begun to take shape.
Regardless of the main creator, the subject matter, the core of the film, and even the shooting method, the two works are in the same vein.
From the perspective of genre, they are mature and fluent "strong genre" works. The film is tightly paced, the plot climaxes, the puzzles and reversals of the setting can be unexpected, and the look and feel is even more refreshing.
A major feature of the two films: the use of an overhead world view, which allows the creator to have more space and more open discussion in the expression of social issues, and can choose to cut in from the perspective of ordinary people and reflect on social contradictions and social issues.
It seems that the text is different, but the emotional core of the story is always the same: it is all family affection, family, the exploration of human nature and destiny, and the care for the little people.
So we also found that when many of the audiences in the peach group walked out of the theater, their eyes were still red.
This may also be the difference in emphasis between the two "Manslaughter": the first part emphasizes fast pace and suspense, while the second part focuses more on emotional expression.
This also reflects a point: "Manslaughter" is not a series that eats the old book.
It captures the essence of the series, but is always exploring new stories and new possibilities. Seeking innovation and change can make a series always maintain its vitality.
What is certain is that we have one more domestic IP worth looking forward to.
I am very curious about the direction of the "Manslaughter" series, especially after watching the second part, I can't wait to urge the third part.
But before that, hurry to the cinema and watch Manslaughter 2!
There is no doubt that this will be a must-see film in your New Year's Eve file this year.