October 1999, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong.
In a suite bedroom in the Ward Building, a body was found, decomposed to the point of only white bones, and its head was different.
The deceased was confirmed to be Peng Chuying, a model who had disappeared for many years, which was the "female model white bone case" that shocked Hong Kong people. Peng Chuying died for more than four years, and it was not until she became a white bone that she saw the light of day.
The owner of that apartment, named Fang Mansheng, a famous lawyer in Hong Kong, has developed an extramarital affair with Peng Chuying for many years since 1985.
His younger sister, better known in the mainland - Chen Fang Ansheng. She was the first Chief Secretary for Administration after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and was the first Chinese Chief Secretary (Chief Secretary to the Governor) during the British government era.
The hit movie "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" (Hong Kong name "Poisonous Tongue Big Shape") released in Hong Kong on January 21, 2023, the prototype of the case in the play is taken from the "White Bone Case". And the prototype of the lawyer role played by Huang Zihua is also a legend -
Weng Jingjing.
Her most well-known title is - "The First Little Dragon Girl", starring with Leslie Cheung in 1983 in the earliest movie "Yang Guo and the Little Dragon Girl" adapted from Jin Yong's novel "The Condor Heroes", and her appearance is not inferior to the later N version of Xiaolongnu. starred in Xiaolongnu two years after marriage, completely retired at the peak, transformed, sold insurance, and became a lawyer.
Nearly 40 years later, they converged in the movie "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer".
-1-
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" broke the record in Hong Kong film history.
One month after its release, the local box office in Hong Kong exceeded 100 million yuan on February 21, becoming the first Chinese-language film in Hong Kong film history to break 100 million. The 62-year-old Huang Zihua became a god in one fell swoop, of course, the Hong Kong comedy star known for "Dong Du Xiao" (talk show) has long been known as "Zihua Shen".
During the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2022, "Dinner Opera Attacking the Heart" (mainland name "Still Think You Are the Best") also starring him won more than 70 million box office, becoming the second highest grossing Chinese-language film in Hong Kong, second only to the special effects blockbuster "Tomorrow's War", and breaking Stephen Chow's monopoly in the field of comedy.
Unexpectedly, only half a year later, the record set by Huang Zihua was broken again.
However, in the mainland, "Attack on the Heart of Rice Drama" only won a box office result of more than 100 million, and "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is not expected to be high, or within 150 million. It can be seen that Huang Zihua's films, like his "Dongdu Xiao", have obvious cultural differences in dry ports.
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" runs through the entire film's case, alluding to the "white bone case", but it has also been greatly modified. In reality, the model died mysteriously, in the film, it was the model's daughter who died, the same thing is - the initial "peacemaking" with the wealthy and powerful, as well as the public trial and angry denunciation of them in the middle and later stages, have become the reason for ordinary people in Hong Kong to enter the theater to relieve their hatred.
During the interrogation stage, the lawyer played by Huang Zihua found that it was not only the wealthy people who were confronted, but also the huge forces behind it, and even the entire judicial system.
Although the main creator did not explicitly say that it was adapted from the "female model white bone case", Hong Kong media have "taken a seat" and listed similarities. This has further boosted the weight of the film in the hearts of Hong Kong audiences and aroused the interest of the audience.
In fact, the real case is more twisty and scary than in the movie.
-2-
Fang Mansheng and Chen Fanganson brothers and sisters, from wealthy families, Fang's family is a Hong Kong prominent family.
His grandfather Fang Zhenwu, who followed Sun Yat-sen in his early years, was a famous anti-Japanese general, and served as the commander-in-chief of the Third Front Army of the National Army and the commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army. In 1941, he was assassinated by agents under Dai Li in Zhongshan, Guangdong.
Their father Fang Xinhao was in business, but died early at the age of 37, and his mother Fang Zhaoli was a master of Chinese painting, and successively studied under Qian Songyou, Zhao Shaoang, Zhang Daqian and others. Zhang Daqian once inscribed a famous painting for this female disciple-"Two three-star fighting chests fall, 100,000 peaks and mountains with blue soles." ”
Although his father died early, the children of the Fang family were all famous and were known as the "Eight Masters of the Fang Clan". Fang Mansheng was born as the eldest son.
In 1985, when I met model Peng Chuying, she was 20 years old, and he was 46 years old and had a family. Peng's mother once strongly objected: "You are so young, why do you want to find such an old person to be with?" The daughter explained that Fang and his wife were only a nominal couple and had slept in separate beds. She was fantasizing that she might be "turning positive."
Pang Chu-ying and Fong Man-sheng lived together in Wan Chai and Acacia Bay, Sai Kung. The girl, who is in her early 20s, is no longer a model and takes pleasure in raising dogs. After that, he had three abortions and became addicted to drugs and gambling in the early 90s.
Peng Chuying walked the catwalk
One day, Peng Chuying suddenly complained to her mother, saying that Fang Mansheng had snubbed her, seemed to have changed her heart, often lost sleep, and needed to take sleeping pills to fall asleep. Peng's mother asked her to move back home, but her daughter refused: "After so many years, he will not treat me badly." ”
However, Peng Chuying rarely got anything from Fang Mansheng. She once went to Fang Mansheng's law firm to ask for living expenses, but downstairs she was threatened three or four times by a right-hand man surnamed Yang, and asked Peng Chuying not to come again, otherwise she would "beat you to death."
Peng's mother occasionally found that her daughter had injuries on her back and cheeks, and after questioning, she learned that her daughter had been punched and kicked by Fang's assistant surnamed Yang.
In the diary left by Peng Chuying, there were many words missing Fang Mansheng, but the pages of someone's name were all torn off.
When Peng Chuying's body was found, her head was in the bedside trash can, while her body was lying on the ground next to the bed. Forensics officers were unable to find any soft tissue and genetic samples on the body, so the tests that could be performed were limited, and the cause of death was not enough, and Peng Chuying's identity could only be confirmed from the teeth.
Why is the head different? The medical examiner determined that the deceased died leaning against the garbage can next to the bed, and during the corruption process, the head was overwhelmed and naturally fell into the garbage can at the head of the bed.
But what is even more strange is - between 1995 and 1999, Fang Mansheng was witnessed entering and leaving this suite many times, why was he not found Peng Chuying dead in the bedroom? And for a period of time in 1995, many neighbors also smelled the stench in their houses, but they turned a blind eye and did not notice any abnormalities.
There was originally a used condom in the trash can, but after the incident, it disappeared without inspection. And before the room was full of photos of Peng Chuying and Fang Mansheng, they disappeared after that - this detail also appeared in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer".
Initially, the police designated it as "murder", which was later changed to "body discovery".
After the incident, the police took no action. The Secretary for Security at the time, Ip Lau Suk-yee, who was in charge of policing at the time, once admitted that although the case had a great impact, she had not received any internal reports and was suspected of being suspended, "The police at that time did not inform me, maybe they thought it was just an ordinary case of unknown cause of death, but in the family of the Chief Secretary for Administration, they must have known that they may have reported it directly to Mrs. Chan (Chan Fong Anson)." ”
From 1997 to 2001, Anson Chan served as the first Chief Secretary for Administration after Hong Kong's handover, second only to the Chief Executive. The date of appointment, which exactly covers the time period when the case occurred. And this is also doubtful that he ordered to cover up the incident to protect the reputation of the Fang family.
After Peng Chuying's death, her mother tried to ask Fang Mansheng for funeral expenses, and Fang's lawyer said in person:
"Do you know that he (referring to Fang Mansheng) is the Chen Fang Ansheng family, while black! One side white! ”
Peng Chuying photo photo
-3-
In 2005, Weng Jingjing was entrusted by Peng Chuying's mother to intervene in the case. At that time, she had just obtained her lawyer's license for 6 years and was still a "novice".
And it has been 20 years since she quit the film industry.
Weng Jingjing debuted at the age of 13, and the most famous role is that she starred with Leslie Cheung in "Yang Guo and the Little Dragon Girl" at the age of 18.
Weng Jingjing played Xiaolongnu in 1983
In 1984, he married the well-known kung fu star and action director Lau Kar-leung, who was 30 years older, and after marriage, he resolutely announced his retirement in order to prevent the discussion that he relied on Lau Kar-leung's fame to take over the show. Until the death of Liu Jialiang in 2013, although the two had ups and downs, their marriage eventually survived. After Lau's death, she married the famous Hong Kong Sir Ho Tung's great-grandson Ho Yu Biao, Ho Tung, the brother of gambling king Stanley Ho's father, Ho Fook.
After the shadow, Weng Jingjing initially switched to the insurance industry. When Peng Chuying's bones were discovered, she only got her lawyer's license and had just worked as a trainee lawyer at a law firm. Later, he opened his own law firm.
In November 2005, Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice changed and announced the resumption of investigation into Pang Chu-ying's case, and Peng's mother found Weng Chingjing, a newcomer, to act as a lawyer.
As in Huang Zihua's play, Weng Jingjing also became a defendant at the beginning of the trial, trying to obstruct her progress in the trial.
At that time, there was a warehouse with relevant documents, what were the documents? This is the direction of Weng Jingjing's question. However, Fang Mansheng sued her personally and forbade her to mention any issues related to the warehouse.
The Fang family even greeted Weng Jingjing's mother, Zhao Xiaoyu, hoping to persuade her to stop. Zhao Xiaoyu is also a strange woman, not an idle person, a person in the rivers and lakes, with a very high generation, and can eat both black and white. In Weng Jingjing's words, "My mother is very evil, and I am most afraid of her." ”
When my mother came to me, Weng Jingjing said, "You also know how I am a human being, I don't do things that I can't sleep, I am a non-compromising person, I can't go against my beliefs." ”
Seeing this, Zhao Xiaoyu said, "In that case, then you should be careful." He also instructed his daughter to bring bottles of water and umbrellas. Weng Jingjing asked why? My mother said, "Because someone will shower you with water (sulfuric acid), you better bring an umbrella, use an umbrella to block it, block it after the water, and then wash it." ”
Therefore, every time Weng Jingjing appeared in court, she brought a bottle of water and an umbrella.
Weng Jingjing was still a "novice lawyer" back then
-4-
Weng Jingjing also went to see "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer".
Part of the plot of the movie made her quite emotional-
"The first impression is that the audience's eyes are bright, in fact, the plot in the play is obvious, talking about a family, in Hong Kong all the influence on all aspects, such as politics and judicial enforcement, of course, the most representative of these cases in Hong Kong is the Peng Chuying case. The first thing I think is the most similar, the kind of position (plot) that hides the truth from top to bottom, I see the old lady (Lin Xiaozhan) in the play, as soon as you see this old lady, you should have a great association with her original form. ”
Obviously, the "original form" she was referring to was Chen Fang Ansheng. The wealthy old lady in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" looks like this former Hong Kong political celebrity.
The wealthy old lady in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer"
In addition, the film has many similarities with reality.
In the film, Huang Zihua uses a magnifying glass to find major clues in the corner of the photo. In reality, Weng Jingjing also used a magnifying glass to discover an unknown secret.
Initially, Peng Chuying's case was listed as a "murder case", and within half an hour, the second team of police hurriedly came to take over and changed it to "body discovery case". No one can ask for any further information about the case, which is top secret. When the trial began in 2006, 7 years had passed since the discovery of the bones, and more than 10 years before the date of death, and there were no clues at the scene.
Weng Jingjing applied to the court for evidence, but the police said that there was nothing, "I said it was impossible not to take pictures of the scene." "After repeated applications, the police provided 300 photos, but they were all 5-size 3R photos, only the size of the palm of a hand.
The photos can see the corpses and garbage cans, the scene environment is very chaotic, but the details are not clear. This used a magnifying glass, and it turned out that the photo contained a tax recovery notice letter from the tax office.
"I remember coming back with dozens of magnifying glasses [in court] and the jurors were each holding a magnifying glass in their hands, and all our clues were from photographs, and this is how we looked at the evidence. So when I see the magnifying glass [in the movie], I don't smile. Weng Jingjing said.
At the end of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", the chief prosecutor played by Xie Junhao should have stood on the opposite side of Huang Zihua, but he countered the water to assist. Weng Jingjing also met such a chief controller:
"(The chief prosecutor) slowly saw that the whole thing was wrong, and she was also a very righteous person, she followed the perspective of justice in the case, and later helped me to stand on my side for cross-examination, and she did not object to me to cross-examine."
Bizarrely, the night before the trial, Weng Jingjing saw Peng Chuying's ghost. They chatted for hours, and the ghost told her that witnesses scheduled to appear the next day would not come, and that several "Taoist friends" she did not know would appear. Weng Jingjing asked the domestic helper to make an oath and wrote down everything she saw in Indonesian, "Prove that I am not an idiot." She said.
In court, as the "ghost" said, the scheduled witnesses could not attend. Some people who claimed to be Peng Chuying's ex-boyfriend suddenly appeared, saying that Peng was a drug addict and morally corrupt.
However, Weng Jingjing asked them if they knew Peng Chuying's birthday, but none of them were right:
"I ask them again, you often go to her house, is the kitchen in her house on the left or right side of the bedroom, and can you see the kitchen when you enter the doorway?" I asked about the kitchen, so everyone was in a confession, trying very hard to describe where the kitchen was, one said left and one said right, and the other said what furnishings and refrigerators were inside, and after everyone described it, I told them that there was no kitchen in the unit, you had never been to the unit at all, and you didn't know her. ”
This "ghost story", told by Weng Jingjing himself, cannot be true, or may be just a beautiful fantasy.
Weng Jingjing said that she met Peng Chuying's ghost
Source: Ming Pao Weekly
-5-
However, unlike the happy ending in "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", Peng Chuying's white bone case was finally ruled to be "died of misfortune or accident", which means that no one is responsible.
Weng Jingjing was unwilling.
In response to the case, in early February, she also listed six major doubts on social media platforms:
(1) Pang Chu-ying died in Fang Man Biotechnology, brother of former Chief Secretary Chan Fong Ansang.
(2) The deceased is not a man of the end of his life.
(3) Someone once went to speculate on the property through the deceased and owed a huge amount of tax to the tax bureau, so that the two sides had a bad relationship and planted trouble.
(4) During the period of the deceased's disappearance, the owner of the house kept paying utility bills and management fees, and the electricity bills of the unit involved were expensive, and it was suspected that someone had been turning on the air conditioner to cover up the smell of the corpse.
(5) The intimate photograph of the person concerned has completely disappeared into the room. The police programme was then classified as "top secret" and no one was allowed to interrogate them.
(6) Who was the last person to have sex with the deceased? Depends on the DNA of the condom. However, the police said that the police had handed over the evidence of the condom to the laboratory, but the testimony of the test stated that the relevant evidence had never been received from the police.
At the end of the trial in 2006, Weng Jingjing confronted Fang Mansheng as a witness in court, mentioned the tax recovery notice in the photo, accusing him of "using Peng Chuying's head to speculate on buildings", and she owed a huge amount of taxes, so that the tax bureau recovered it.
Weng Jingjing further pressed: "These money actually have nothing to do with her, because she is your head, you should be going to pay, but you didn't pay, this woman kept chasing you, arguing to go to your house, so you found someone to kill her, right?" ”
When she said the word "kill her" passionately, the apparent chief prosecutor did not say "against".
Fang Mansheng stood up by himself and shouted:
"I object, you crazy woman, personality murders me."
Fang Mansheng
17 years later, although the case has long been concluded, Weng Jingjing insists that the case will be overturned:
"Something happened a few years ago, but I can't say that there is a good chance that the case will be overturned, but the only thing is that I am afraid that when the case is overturned, these people will already die." She was referring to Fang Mansheng, who is 83 years old this year.
Weng Jingjing said, "There is still a breath to finish this thing, I think the matter is unfinished." ”
However, after all, movies are illusory, and reality is the real world to face.
Weng Jingjing once said this:
"In the big world, there is no justice for small people."
In fact, this is also the reason why "Poison Tongue Lawyer" sold well in Hong Kong - since justice is nowhere to be found, I had to live a dry addiction in the movie.
Written by | KILLER LEON
Curated | Editorial Department of Entertainment Spring and Autumn