Last weekend, I watched "Mai Luren" with the friends of the Adventure Movie Group in advance.
I have been following this movie for a long time, and I was looking forward to it when I first started shooting.
Not only because the two leading actors Aaron Kwok and Miriam Yeung are many people's childhood idols, the theme itself is also very attractive.
I remember that in 2017, an article titled "After 24:00 is not a fast food restaurant" burst the circle of friends, and the author took a group of photos of all kinds of people staying in fast food restaurants after midnight in Beijing, for the first time, presenting this group in the public eye.
The self-media "Black Persimmon" first published an article, which was a burst of friends at that time
These people, for various reasons, do not return home at night, and regard the 24-hour fast food restaurant as their home. If you've been to these places after midnight to order food, you've seen them too.
They always huddled quietly in the dark corners of fast food restaurants, crouched on the table, waiting for dawn.
We turn a blind eye to this group of people, we take it for granted, and very few people ask about their stories.
For the first time, the hot post turned the camera on them to ask about their story.
Some of them are "goods watchmen with 3 broken bones in the cervical spine", some are "sisters who went to Beijing to seek medical treatment", of course, some people just don't want to go home, lost love, just want to find a place not to be disturbed, and stay quietly.
It can be said that every night's fast food restaurant is a place full of stories.
Later, everyone found out that there are a group of such people not only in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, but also in Hong Kong and Taipei.
They are generally referred to by the locals as the "McSleepers", or "McSleepers".
Now, there is finally a pure Hong Kong film, focusing the lens on this group and excavating this theme, can you not look forward to it?
The ultimate poster of "Mai Lu Ren", released on September 17
The more glamorous the city, the more moving the stories of ordinary people behind it.
If you wander the streets of Hong Kong after 9 p.m., you'll find that the nights in this busy super cosmopolitan city are actually quiet.
People still working overtime in office buildings hide in their offices, holding up the splendor of the Central skyscrapers; the streets are filled with office workers rushing home, tired-looking, and no one will stay.
In addition to bar areas such as Lan Kwai Fong, which is crowded with indulgent people, restaurants and small shops have closed one after another.
Only the 24-hour fast food restaurants that are still lit up are generally not in a hurry, so it naturally becomes a good place for people who have nowhere to go for a night's sleep.
Usually, people can identify the approximate identity and financial situation of these people from the clothing and decorations -
For example, Shui Xiang (played by Zhang Daming), thin and thin body, clothes are always dirty, hats are crooked, and eyes never know where to look. Fallen people, just look like this.
He usually relies on street stalls to sell paintings for a living, you know, in a place like Hong Kong, where there are tourists who stay and patronize, so Shui Xiang often has a meal without a meal.
Another example is Shen Zai (played by Gu Dingxuan), you will always see such a teenager who does not return home in a fast food restaurant, they usually come and go alone and never communicate with people.
Every night, they hide in the corner of a fast-food restaurant, their eyes tired, but they never put down their phones and play games over and over again.
This kind of problem teenager generally runs away because of family problems, and Shen Zai is no exception, this unemployed teenager is not doing his job at home all day, clashing with his family, and running away from home.
Single mother Xiaoyan (played by Liu Yaser) because of the unexpected death of her husband, she has to raise a child alone, but also for the bad gambling mother-in-law to repay usury loans, every day always haunt the back alley of various tea restaurants to help wash dishes and work to pay off debts, at night, with the child to spend the night in a fast food restaurant.
Only three people were exceptions.
The middle-aged man Abo (played by Aaron Kwok), he seems to not belong to the above group, wearing an old suit, carrying a large school bag, if it were not for his depressed look, bearded face, tired face, you really can hardly see, in fact, he is also a tramp.
But you can feel that he is different.
He can help single mothers write application letters to the Social Welfare Department in fluent English, and he can also help various homeless friends find jobs with their familiar social connections.
There is no doubt that he is the center of this group of people.
Wait for Bo (played by Wan Ziliang) is also very different. He stayed in a fast food restaurant for a long time, not because he didn't have money.
He had an unknown past: his wife died unexpectedly a few years earlier, and since then his consciousness has become a little trance, and he sits in the same position every night, thinking about his dead wife in the empty seat.
Qiu Hong (Yang Qianwei), who sings in the "Sunny Day" dance hall on Temple Street, is another exception, and she also joins the group because she and Abo have a constant love affair.
But at the end of the day, she is also a "Wheat Roadman". Temple Street has long been incense in decline, and in the past, Asia's most famous night market, no one is used to listening to street singing. Qiu Hong is also facing a crisis of unemployment.
This group of people, due to fate, will meet in a fast food restaurant, there is no blood relationship, just "the same is the end of the world", so they have a friendship with each other.
In October 2015, a homeless elderly woman sat in a fast-food restaurant and died unexpectedly, without being discovered for seven hours. This incident shook the whole of Hong Kong and aroused widespread concern in the society.
This incident caused a sensation in Hong Kong that year
This is when people notice the presence of this group of people who are almost "invisible" in fast food restaurants, because this group of people is also very interesting, always hiding in the dark corners of the store, trying not to disturb others.
Hong Kongers called this group the "Mai Sleepers" or "Mai Refugees", and later came to a more benign name, called "Mai Lu people".
After investigation, five years have passed, and this group has not disappeared, but the number of people who have joined is rising.
As we all know, Hong Kong is the most expensive place in the world for rent, especially in the area of Yau Tsim Mong and TongLuo Ring. Office rent is expensive, housing is more expensive, and even a place less than ten square meters is spaced into multiple small single rooms, commonly known as "subdivided houses", and the rent is not cheap relative to the income of some people.
As a result, some low-income people who can't even afford to rent "subdivided houses" naturally have to linger in fast food restaurants.
According to a survey by social worker groups in Hong Kong, nearly half of the respondents actually have a full-time job or a part-time job, which subverts everyone's perception.
But whether it is a person like Abo or Waitbo who still has a little money, or a person like Shui Xiang who does not continue to eat three meals, the reason for staying in a fast food restaurant is "saving money" and "comfortable".
Large fast food restaurants are actually aware of the existence of this group, but they are more open-minded and acquiesce in the group staying in the store.
As a result, more and more people joined this "Mai Lu people" family.
No matter how bright the sun is, there are black spots, and behind the brilliance of every metropolis, there are countless untold sad stories.
The same is true of Hong Kong. Even in the 1980s, when the economy was booming, various social problems emerged.
Hong Kong films have always had a tradition of humanistic care, such as in 1982 Lai Tai Wai directed "Pretty Sister Boy", telling the story of underage girls who ran away from home (commonly known as "old mud sister"), this film not only boldly used the then unknown people as the starring role, the theme can be described as shocking, the first time to show the disgraceful side of society in front of the audience, this film created a precedent for Hong Kong realistic films, but also became a Hong Kong film classic.
Since then, in 1986, Jiang David's "Inaudible Talk" paid attention to the crime phenomenon of deaf and mute teenagers in Hong Kong for the first time; Zheng Zeshi starred in 1985 to focus on the lives of mentally handicapped people in "Why There Be Me"; 1986 to focus on the problem of mentally ill patients"; in 1992, Zhang Zhiliang directed, Qiao Hong, Wong Ka-ju and Liao Qizhi starred in "Cage People" to focus on the housing problem, and won the Academy Award for Best Film that year.
It can be said that even in the 80s and 90s, when the pursuit of commercialization and entertainment was the ultimate, Hong Kong films have always been serious works, which reflect on social issues and attract public attention.
Even today, when the output of Hong Kong films is declining and Hong Kong films are declining, Hong Kong filmmakers still make socially responsible films such as "Mai Lu Ren", which is worth encouraging.
This time, "Mai LuRen", the Hong Kong media used the big character title of "The Stars Arching" to describe it. On the other hand, it reflects that the more difficult the film market road, the more united the filmmakers in Hong Kong are.
Director Huang Qingxun is an "old newcomer", for 20 years, he has been the assistant director of the big director Zheng Baorui, "Mai Luren" is his first independent directing work, as a debut, that is, to choose serious social issues, courageous, he also nominated for this year's Academy Awards for Best New Director Award.
Aaron Kwok, who is the emperor of the golden horse and the golden statue, immediately agreed to star just by the outline of the story.
"Tell (the agent) Xiaomei that all conditions are agreed!"
"I went online to look for information about [Mai Refugees] and found that the homeless people around the world did not just stay under the bridge or in the park, but lived in fast food restaurants... Seeing this script, plus I'm a Hong Kong actor, if I can start from this movie and make the whole world resonate, I think it's worth helping."
This time, Aaron Kwok's role is different from his superstar image, and it is hard to imagine that he will play a tramp.
Even director Huang Qingxun said, "Sometimes when I see him on the scene in rags, with a face full of roots and a sad face, it is really difficult to imagine that he is Guo Tianwang, who is usually an official and a bone- and a gentleman."
Bao Qijing, who won the Academy Award for "The Day and Night in Tin Shui Wai", played Aaron Kwok's mother in the film this time
As for the supporting characters, Zhang Daming, Wan Ziliang, and Bao Qijing are also the classic old drama bones of Hong Kong films, and each role does not have much ink, but they are complete and vivid.
"The Wheat Man" is not a movie to sell "miserable", although the plot of tragedy is everywhere.
After watching the movie, the group of friends began to discuss
The protagonist, Abo, like many Hong Kongers, has a glamorous past. He was once a financial talent, but because he made mistakes in the process of operation, he was imprisoned, and his life was changed.
But just like his appearance in the film, he seems to come to a fast food restaurant to help everyone as if he were going to work, using the knowledge and experience he has learned in the past to try to lead the "friends" out of the predicament.
Qiu Hong's body seems to condense the ups and downs of Hong Kong's nightlife.
——It is worth mentioning that the Temple Street "Sunny Day" where she sings in the film really exists here, and it is one of the few traditional dance halls that are still in business.
The year before, British rock star Jarvis Cocker took advantage of his performance in Hong Kong to visit the area to feel the style of Temple Street in the past.
In 2018, Jarvis Kak was on a "sunny day" on Temple Street and couldn't help but show off his hand on stage
Choosing Miriam Yang to play this role is probably also to see the tough temperament of a Hong Kong woman in her.
The times are changing, the song hall is declining, Qiu Hong is not discouraged, if you have to sing, you will continue to sing, can not continue to sing, then change careers, do what you can to help others.
A city has its own story, the story always has highs and lows, up and down, up and down, but the most important thing for people in the city is not to lose their hearts. People are there, the lights are there, and the city is still alive.
"Mai Luren" was selected for the Macao International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, and this year's Academy Awards were nominated for nine nominations, and Zhang Daming won the best supporting actor in one fell swoop. Because of the delay of the epidemic, I can finally go to the theater line now.
If you still love Hong Kong films, it is worth supporting this conscience-made film.
This article was first published in the Adventure Movie: Cinematik
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