Hello everyone, I'm in Alaska with glasses and a microphone, tablet.
Recently, there was a film that received eleven nominations at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards.
It's the movie "Turbid Water Rafting."
The protagonists of this film are a group of homeless people living in the streets of Hong Kong.
They're either poisonous worms or a bunch of debt, and everyone has their own dark past.
Wu Zhenyu plays the protagonist Hui Ge, his wife is missing, and his only child has died.
He was imprisoned for trivial matters, squatted for a while, was released, and staggered back to the gathering place of the tramps.
Before his ass was hot, he gave himself a shot.
Hui Ge is an addict, although it is not explicitly stated in the movie, but it is conceivable that his tragic past is related to drug use.
The acquaintances around Hui Ge are also addicts.
The "old man" played by Xie Junhao has the best relationship with him.
The old man was a Vietnamese refugee who came to Hong Kong during the war and could never go back.
He also has a son in Vietnam, but his life and death are unknown, which is a piece of his heart disease.
In addition to the two, there are also carpenters in the wandering Han group, and Ah Niang, who lives by washing dishes...
They lived together under the bridge, and a roll was a home.
They are the moths of Hong Kong, with no future and no hope.
They are willing to fall, and whoever sees it will walk around.
One night, the authorities suddenly came to clear the scene and threw all their belongings into the garbage truck.
Having lost their homes, the homeless people are indignant.
Miss He, who works as a volunteer, has always been helping these poor people who have fallen into the streets.
Seeing that they had nowhere to go, he offered to help them fight the lawsuit.
She wants to recover the homeless people's belongings and ask the authorities to compensate.
Lawsuits have to be fought, but the cycle is long.
The homeless still have to solve the problem of housing first.
On a whim, Hui Ge found a bunk bed that had been thrown away and wanted to take it to the bottom of the bridge.
On the way, he met a strange boy.
He also wanders the streets and loves to play the harmonica when he's fine.
The boy helped Hui Ge and transported the bunk bed to the destination.
Hui Ge found some wooden planks, asked the carpenter in the tramp to help piece together, and made a few simple rooms for everyone.
Everyone went to the hardware store and stole a cable and connected it to the transformer on the side of the road.
On the electricity, the lights are on, although the simple room is very dilapidated, but it finally has a little warmth.
The lawsuit and the construction of a new house seem to have brought some changes in Hui Ge's mentality.
He began to try to rehabilitate himself.
And bravely stood up and gave media interviews to talk about his past of confiscating his belongings.
The media reports have made these homeless people a hot spot of public opinion.
Strange people come to their station and want to rub the heat.
Hui Ge and others lamented the absurdity, and more absurd things happened.
They won the case.
Each homeless person will receive a compensation of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars (equivalent to 1,600 yuan).
In fact, there is not much money, but it makes everyone smile.
Only Hui Ge had a dark face - because although the other party promised to lose money, he refused to apologize.
Hui Ge felt that only giving money without apologizing was an insult to him.
But he didn't accept it alone, and all the tramps couldn't get the money.
In an instant, hui ge rebelled.
To make matters worse, the simple houses somehow appeared with prohibited weapons, and these houses were also to be cleared.
This time it was no longer a surprise attack, and the relevant departments made advance notice.
Hui Ge, who did not want to leave, wanted to fight for a breath, and finally lit a fire, burning himself and his dignity to ashes.
The main story of "Turbid Water Rafting" ends here.
There may be small partners who think that the plot is too simple, not suspenseful or exciting.
But it is such a simple plot that can bring about the impact of the harsh reality.
Many times, we are accustomed to watching various genre films with multiple climaxes, and watching such realistic films will indeed be boring.
But if you really delve into the world of movies, you will see a Hong Kong at the bottom that is rarely seen nowadays.
"Turbid Water Rafting" opens with a street view of Hong Kong's high-rise buildings.
In the crevices of these high-rise buildings, there are residential areas inhabited by ordinary people.
The lives of these ordinary people may not be as extreme as those of Hui Ge and others, but they are certainly full of the hardships of life.
"Turbid Water Rafting" opens a window and shows the other side of the harbor.
For example, the harmonica boy in the movie who helps Hui Ge carry the bed, he has a home, but he does not want to go back.
He seems to like to wander and doesn't want to live a step-by-step life.
There is a scene in the movie where he stands bare-chested on the side of the road and yells silently.
What was he yelling about?
No one knows.
Later, Hui Ge let the volunteers find his mother, and the child was taken home.
(Playing the mother is Ye Tong)
Volunteers ask mothers why their children run away from home and wander?
Ye Tong asked the volunteers:
How has he been doing all these years?
It was an ineffective exchange.
Perhaps, the harmonica boy was fed up with this ineffective communication and hollow communication before he ran away.
He was just one of thousands of confused young people.
In recent years, Hong Kong realist films have formed a secret force.
They never go away.
Earlier, there was "Lucky Me", which described the lonely life of the elderly.
and "A Thought of Ignorance", which depicts people with bipolar disorder.
In "A Thought of Ignorance", the bipolar disorder is just a lead-
The film thus unfolds a world of hong Kong's low-level people.
They live in cramped rooms, some working everywhere, some driving trucks to run freight.
They live so hard, so ordinary and so humble.
2019's "Mai Lu Ren" has given countless people the strength to warm.
The protagonist is a group of low-level people who live in a 24-hour McDonald's, they are all at the low point of life, hugging each other to keep warm.
In the movie, Aaron Kwok plays a former business elite.
Because of the sudden change in his career, he did not dare to face his family or himself.
So I've been living in McDonald's.
Around him, there was a group of suffering people who shared the same disease.
They would raise money together when someone was sick.
They will also accompany each other when they are lonely.
They may never be able to change their tragic fate again.
But the difficult times with each other by their side are the moments of eternity.
In addition to the above Hong Kong realist films in the past two years, there is a more distant one that I want to recommend to you.
It is "Caged People" starring wong Ka-koo, the late lead singer of BEYOND.
It depicts the low-class people who lived in cages in the early 1990s.
Its story, in many places, is similar to "Turbid Water Rafting".
For example, the main plot of the movie is also the cage house where the relevant departments want to take away the cage people.
The main contradiction involved is also whether the caged people want to keep the place or compensate.
In "Turbid Water Rafting", when the Vietnamese refugee master died, the homeless people did a ritual for him.
In "Cage People", a cage friend died, and it was also the cage people themselves who did the ritual for him.
Even the endings of the two films are similar.
In the end, the cagers neither saved the house nor received compensation.
Huang Jiaju, who used to live in a cage house, went to work at the zoo, and he looked at the orangutan in the cage as if he were looking at himself.
"Caged People" is a 1992 movie, 29 years have passed, fortunately no one has forgotten.
That's why I want to talk to you about Turbid Water Rafting.
Let's see you tomorrow.
Bye bye bye.
The picture in this article comes from the network
EDIT: Kang Meng