2021 has passed most of the way, looking back at this year's Hong Kong movies, there are very few amazing ones.
Director Chen Musheng's posthumous work "Fury And Serious Case" was in full swing (Douban 7.3 points), and won the box office champion of Hong Kong films in chinese film history with a score of 1.329 billion.
Zheng Baorui's black-and-white film "Wisdom Teeth" was severe (Douban 7.2 points), and his explosive acting skills and excellent reputation made his sword point to the Academy Awards of the year.
Recently, another recent highest-rated dark horse Hong Kong film has arrived, which can be said to be one of the best Hong Kong movies of the year.
If nothing else, you can even remove "one" -
Turbid water rafting
Director: Li Junshuo
Writer: Li Junshuo
Starring: Wu Zhenyu / Xie Junhao / Cai Siyun / Li Lizhen / Zhu Baikang / Ke Weilin / Ye Tong
Premiere: 2021-06-03 (Hong Kong, China)
Duration: 112 minutes
Looking at the poster, you can see that this movie has been acclaimed.
It was shortlisted for the Rotterdam Film Festival's "Big Screen" competition section, nominated for several awards at the Golden Horse and Asian Film Awards, and won the Jury Special Award at this year's First Film Festival.
As of now, the Douban score is 7.7, which is the highest rated Hong Kong film so far this year.
In terms of the lineup of the movie, it can also be said that it is a full-staff acting school.
The two film emperors Wu Zhenyu ("Gunfire") and Xie Junhao ("Nanhai Thirteen Lang") sat together, and the two film queens Li Lizhen ("A Thousand Words") and Ye Tong ("Marriage Don't Speak") co-starred.
In addition, there are also Cai Siyun, who was nominated for the Academy Award with "Phantom Love", and Zhu Baikang, who was nominated for the Academy Award for the Film Emperor with "Golden Capital", and other powerful actors to join, making this film strong.
But in terms of story, it is the opposite of the so glittering Cast, telling the bleak experience of a group of homeless people sleeping on the street.
The protagonist of the film, Hui Ge (played by Wu Zhenyu), is a Vietnamese refugee who came to Hong Kong in the 80s.
With his wife missing and his son dying many years ago, Hui Ge has lived in Hong Kong for many years and still has no place to live.
In the early years, Hui Ge also committed a crime and went to prison, and the story began from the first day he was released from prison.
On the streets of Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, there are a group of people who live on the streets like Hui Ge, eating and sleeping in the wind.
They have different identities: Vietnamese refugees who stay here, Indians who can't find work, addicts, women who sell themselves, and so on.
But here, they all have a common name: street friends.
Out of similar experiences, they lived a life of warmth and support for each other.
On the day hui ge was released from prison, the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Protection Department (Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department) launched a clean-up campaign.
All of these street friends' belongings were removed, including ID cards and important items around them.
As a result, they were forced to embark on a difficult road of subsistence and rights protection.
On the one hand, they had to find another place to live and rebuild a new one under a bridge.
There was no bed to sleep on and a wall panel to block the wind, so it was picked up from the garbage heap.
Without wires, they were stolen from hardware stores and connected to the circuits of roadside utilities, and a new homeless home was born.
On the other hand, they have to fight the government.
By law, prior notice should be given before the streets are cleared, but FEHD does not follow the rules.
With the help of a female social worker, they collectively went to the government gates to demonstrate, wanting a public apology and compensation.
Thanks to the efforts of the people, the government agreed to compensate HK$2,000 per person, but refused to apologize for the clearance.
When all the street friends thought it was a happy ending, Hui Ge was unwilling to accept it.
He wanted more than just money, but a reasonable apology, and he wanted to fight for a shred of dignity and justice for himself who survived in the slits.
In the end, everyone received compensation and left the gathering place under the bridge.
The seriously ill Hui Ge held his ground and lit a fire one night, burning the shack and the last of his dignity.
The story of "Turbid Water Rafting" is not complicated, and many films focusing on hong Kong's living problems have been made before.
For example, the movie "McLuman", released the year before, is about a group of homeless people spending the night at McDonald's to help each other through the trough of life.
There is also the 1992 Hong Kong film "Caged People", which more realistically and nakedly presents the story of the bottom people who have no buildings to live in, but have to live in the caged beds in the houses of dangerous buildings.
The common denominator of these works is that they all revolve around Hong Kong, which has little land, and presents the sentient beings of the low-level masses who have no houses to live in.
The difference in "Turbid Water Drifting" is that it does not whitewash, sell misery or sensationalize in the story and character creation.
It can be said that being real and not selling miserably is the tone of this movie, and it is also the original intention of director Li Junshuo.
In an interview, he said:
When people today mention the people at the bottom, they automatically bring in sadness and heavy emotions. And he does not want to create a sympathetic subjective perspective on the film, but rather wants to record and express the state of this group of marginalized groups themselves.
Speaking of this, we have to mention the amazing acting skills of Wu Zhenyu and Xie Junhao.
The "old man" played by Tse Jun-ho is a refugee during the Vietnam War, who lost contact with his family after falling into Hong Kong.
When the female social worker helped him find his son abroad and opened a video chat, Xie Junhao presented a very layered and infectious performance.
After learning that the person on the screen was his son, he was first stunned.
But in his eyes, tears could not help but emerge in an instant.
After a conversation with his long-lost son, his heart was filled with an indescribable sense of happiness.
But at the same time, he knew how depressed his appearance was, so he only dared to talk to his son on his side, and the tears fell.
As the exchange deepened, he learned that his son had settled abroad and started a family and had two children.
At this time, his excitement reached the top, but in the next second, he immediately turned from joy to sorrow.
Sad for his own incompetence and failure, but also for his son, who has not enjoyed his father's care for many years.
From surprise to joy, and from joy to sorrow, Xie Junhao's performance is very natural.
Let the audience deeply feel the complex and intense inner emotional changes of this character, and also pave the way for his next choices and personal destiny.
Similarly, Wu Zhenyu also contributed a performance that can be called a film emperor in the film.
In the audience's perception, he has always been a hot-tempered person, but in this movie he has to play an angry but powerless person.
From the beginning of the demonstration in front of the government, Hui Ge has strengthened his demands:
Want to live with dignity, want a public apology, not be a loser who is sympathetic.
Such a demand runs through the whole process, and he would rather give up compensation than insist on his integrity, so in the last scene of the movie he will say to the imaginary son:
"I'm not sad, I'm angry."
This sentence came from a very sick and incompetent population, making people feel powerless and suspended.
And this sense of separation just symbolizes the incompatibility of the Sham Shui Po street friends he represents with this drunken city.
The director of the film, Lee Joon-suk, is a newcomer director who shined in 2018 with his debut film "Trish".
The film, which focuses on transgender people, has been called the Hong Kong version of "Danish Girl" and has won many awards such as the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor/Supporting Actress and the Golden Horse For Best Supporting Actor.
The inspiration for this new work "Turbid Water Rafting" came to his mind as early as 2012.
Stills from "Trish"
At that time, Lee Chun-suk was still studying in the journalism department of the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, and he saw a news that "more than 40 rough sleepers in Sham Shui Po were forcibly cleaned up their belongings."
In 2013, 29 of them settled with the government, and each was awarded $2,000 in compensation.
However, two rough sleepers died before the end of a lengthy lawsuit, and the government refused to apologize for the clearance and continues to drive the campers away to this day.
This real event left a deep impression on Li Junshuo and became the prototype of the creation of "Turbid Water Drifting".
Of course, on the basis of portraying reality, there are also many ironic plots in the film that make people think deeply.
For example, when this group of street friends went to demonstrate in front of the government and was reported in the news, many social people came to their settlements to inspect.
Some social organizations bring young people here as a training camp, hoping that they can experience different community life here.
Some media want to dig up the stories of hunting curiosity, regard them as traffic machines, and constantly torture the unbearable past of these street friends.
Have you found that these people are only "caring" from their own standpoint, rather than trying to change the situation of this group of marginalized people, and ignoring their demands and basic dignity.
It's ridiculous and ironic.
After Hui Ge was hospitalized, Mu Zai took him out of the hospital late at night.
They came to a construction site where buildings were being built, climbed up the crane, and peed on the illuminated city below.
In the animal world, peeing is an act of occupying land and swearing sovereignty.
But in the movie, after peeing, they have to go back to the house where the materials from the garbage heap were built and continue to live a life of homelessness and fear.
Of course, the most ironic thing is not the designed bridge in the movie, but the real reality.
When the audience in the movie theater wept for the actors in the film, there may be a real homeless person lying at the door of the theater.
The problem of housing is not only in Hong Kong, but the tragic experience of homeless people who have no houses to live in and no home in big cities has also appeared in social news again and again.
As the lines in the film say, although they are homeless, they are not worthless.
Although their fate is like grass, they should not be left unnoticed.
*This article is written by Ah Wei