Late at night, on the streets of America.
A tramp stood on the side of the road, he was dressed in tattered clothes, his face was dirty, his yellow hair was greasy and clumpy...
Finally, he mustered up enough courage to squeeze the rubbed money and walked toward a street prostitute.
The hot woman took the money, and the two quickly walked into a small house.
She said "don't be nervous" as her hands slid down slowly and touched the zippers of his pants.
Suddenly, the tramp shouted: No!
He stared at the woman in a daze, his eyes like an innocent child: Can you love me?
This dramatic scene is from an unpopular American movie: "Waste Cardboard Boxer"
In the crowded streets of American cities, you can see this scenery everywhere:
Scruffy homeless man with messy hair, wearing the same clothes all year round... Either lazily leaning against the wall, drowsy, or wandering back and forth with nothing to do.
They all had a scrap of cardboard hanging around their necks that read: Homeless, please help me.
So hungry, please give me some beef.
Give me a dollar, sing a song for you, give me two dollars, dance for you...
Willie is one of them.
Every day when the sun rises, he is usually sleepy and hungry.
He didn't sleep all night: because he lived in a cardboard suitcase, he often encountered misfortune at night, sometimes thunderstorms, sometimes robberies. The unsure danger forced him to stare like an owl all night.
During the day, he would always rummag through the trash cans across from the fast food restaurant, and if he was lucky, he could find half a hamburger or chicken nuggets stuck to ants.
The begging business goes up and down, precariously.
Sometimes, someone would pay 50 yuan for the homeless to fight each other and have fun.
Willie often wins because of his big size.
With the money, he can find a hotel, take a shower, get a good night's sleep...
He had no friends, and his only hobby was climbing to the roof of a tall building overlooking the city.
On this day, he found a yellowed diary in the garbage heap.
The top of it was burned, and on the surviving pages, there was childish handwriting.
It belonged to a little girl, and the first page of the diary read: I was in second grade, and my mother gave me this diary on the Christmas before she went to heaven...
Willie wanted to continue reading, but found that he really did not recognize handwriting.
The next day, with the money he had been begging all day, he went into the supermarket and bought a set of literacy cards.
While learning to read and read the diary, slowly, he pieced together the girl's joys and sorrows: she was afraid of thunder, her adoptive uncle often scolded her, she felt very lonely...
The girl said: Sometimes, I want to go to heaven with my mother.
Willie felt that the child was quite similar to himself, and he couldn't help but write to her: Maybe we can be penpals, I am afraid of thunder, I am also lonely, I grew up without a father... You're the only person I know...
Of course, he didn't know where the little girl lived, so he could only fold the letter into a paper airplane and fly out of the roof, as if that way the little girl could receive it.
He went to the bookstore and bought a copy of The Little Girl Who Sold Matches, cut out the portrait of the girl on the cover, and pasted it on the cover of the diary.
He fantasized that one day he would be able to redeem this poor girl.
Who knows, in a boxing fight, Willie accidentally killed someone...
He feels that he has become a "bad guy" and no longer deserves to continue to communicate with the girl...
Released in the United States in 2016, this "Waste Cardboard Boxer" is not highly concerned, only more than 7,000 people mark on Douban, but it has a high score of 8.0, which is the directorial debut of screenwriter Knart Lee.
He chose a marginalized group to document these unnoticed people from a heads-up perspective.
The obscure background, paired with the vicissitudes of music, makes the loneliness and helplessness of these tramps penetrate into your heart little by little.
Maybe you don't know that in the economically developed United States, there are a large number of homeless people, and the data available on the Internet can be found: in 2017, there were about 550,000 homeless people in the United States, which is equivalent to 17 out of every 10,000 people.
New York and Los Angeles, the two cities with the most homeless people in the United States, are expensive rents, forcing many low-income people to live on the streets. It can be said that this phenomenon is a manifestation of the disparity between the rich and the poor in the local area.
As a netizen said: The primary school teacher once taught me that if I don't study well, I will become a tramp on the street in the future. When I grew up, I learned that the tramp was not a homeless man because he did not study well when he was a child. They are just a group of people who have the misfortune to fall to the bottom of society.
In the director's shots, many tramps have been greatly hurt, alone in search of and waiting for redemption.
Day after day, they live like ants.
For example, a homeless man that Willie later met, who was originally a veteran, lost his legs in the Iraq War.
The state gave him a medal, but no other guarantees. He could not find a job and eventually had to become a beggar, and no one looked up to his sacrifice.
In the end, he froze to death on the street.
They are the easiest to see but most overlooked people in the city.
Passers-by passed by, looked at them, and said: This piece is really messy enough.
The child approached them and couldn't help but say in disgust: It stinks!
The missionaries held the Bible and preached to them, but as soon as they turned around, they were reluctant to say a word to them.
There are also so-called "social elites" who treat them as slaves and only want to spend money to have fun with them.
Even the tramp hates each other, and it is common for them to talk dirty and fight each other.
In short, people don't care if they have food to eat, whether they are happy, even if they die, no one cares...
Willie, a soft and kind tramp at heart, always smiles at strangers, but most of them get a look of disgust. Love, so extravagant for him, had to beg for a hug from a prostitute.
Willie cherished every bit of respect that others sent him, and a little gentleness could give him the courage to live.
The girl's diary candle illuminates Willie's life, and when inexplicably connected with the girl's fate, he seems to have found his own value.
In his letter, he said of the girl he had never met:
I have nothing, but if you receive these letters, then probably, I can be the angel your mother sent to embrace you.
Our existence is so special that when someone loves you like that, you are "artificially" special.
Willy, who is no longer alone, has the ability to warm others.
This is a story that has been lost to the extreme, full of loneliness, darkness, and discrimination, but the gentle director has laid a sunny background for this story and given a hopeful ending.
Maybe we can't all become angels of others, but at least, have a good intention. The transmission of the gospel has nothing to do with doctrine, and perhaps a mere embrace can accomplish salvation.
Just like the New Year's message of "Southern Weekend" one year: the sun hits your face, and the warmth remains in our hearts. Nothing can easily move a person, except the love in the heart.
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