"In the Octagon Cage" film review

In recent years, I have always used "I Am Not the God of Medicine" as a reference to measure domestic films that have exceeded hundreds of millions and billions at the box office. Unfortunately, I have a lot of praise for the feelings of those traffic videos, of course, this does not mean that I am unfounded in applause. When I am impressed by a truly high-quality film, I will still give the warmest applause for it, such as Wang Baoqiang's disgusting work "In the Octagon Cage".

"In the Octagon Cage" is a rare realistic humanistic work in recent years that is comparable to "I Am Not the God of Medicine", which focuses on the people at the bottom of society, records realistically, directly states the shortcomings, highlights criticism, and emphasizes reflection. With this film, Wang Baoqiang not only walked out of the shackles of the past or crazy or stupid image in performance, but also proved that he has the strength to control the deep theme of deafness and deafness in the choreographer, please accept my sincere admiration and admiration.

The reason why I always compare "In the Octagon" and "I Am Not the God of Medicine" is because the two do have commendable commonalities. Xiang Tenghui and Cheng Yong are both tragic heroes with ill-fated fate, and the reason why tragic heroes are admired is that they challenge fate with humble bodies and unyieldingly break the human light shown by the world.

Xiang Tenghui was the owner of a sand farm in Daliangshan, Sichuan Province, which was precarious, sparsely populated, severely economically backward, and largely isolated from the last century to the beginning of this century. There was once a Yi band called "Mountain Eagle Group" who sang "Out of Daliangshan", although the lyrics are beautiful, the meaning of the endless vicissitudes behind the word "out" is not something that outsiders can experience.

Xiang Tenghui is called the boss, but in fact, he is struggling to survive, struggling to survive under the harsh local competition. During a delivery, Xiang Tenhui encountered a roadblock robbery, and to his surprise, the robbers turned out to be a group of underage children. Laying an ambush to Tenhui to lure these children to the bait, capturing them all alive, this is a moment that changes the fate of all those involved, and then born of evil but bears good results.

Xiang Tenghui grabbed the two eldest children led by Sloppy and Su Mu, forcing them to lead themselves to their parents to make a claim, and the next scene was shocking. Sloppy and Su Mu's home can be described as a family disciple with broken bricks and broken walls and windows, and only the bedridden sister of the two brothers has the strength to support the location of this so-called writer. When my sister saw Xiang Tenghui, she immediately understood that her brother had run into trouble again, but she was unable to repay the other party's even the most insignificant compensation claim, the camera pushed to her sister's bedside, her hand gently lifted the corner of the quilt, and her eyes looked at Xiang Tenghui with empty and numb eyes.

This scene made my back chill, and the kind-hearted Xiang Tenghui was even more shocked. He finally understands why these children have become road bullies, and it is the cruel survival that forces them to go on the road of no return. Xiang Tenghui's kindness allowed him to take in this group of children in the mountains who were not bad by nature but did not know and do evil, and as a once very good martial arts athlete, he organized the children to form a fighting club, which was regarded as a home for them to eat by fists and feet.

In the early days, the Tenhui Club could only rely on some commercial performances to make a living, and the children performed martial arts in bars, karaoke and other entertainment venues, and used fist-to-flesh hand-to-hand combat to delight customers. To be honest, although this is only a theatrical performance, I despise those in the audience who dance with excitement at watching children fight each other, who are essentially no different from the rotten people in the ancient Roman arena who watched the blood of gladiators flow rivers; Of course, Xiang Tenghui's fighting orphans need to earn money by playing with their lives, which is also a bloody reality.

After accumulating a certain amount of wealth, the Tenhui Club began to move from underground to the front of the stage, and Tenhui himself also broke his heart to resume his martial arts career. However, reality does not tolerate pure livelihood, and Xiang Tenghui's personality also makes him unable to navigate the capital game of Eryu. He just wants to let the children abandoned by mainstream society in Daliangshan have something to eat and be accepted by the public through his own efforts. However, the beautiful vision was eventually ridiculed, teased, abandoned, and hurt by ugly human nature, videos of children boxing and earning money in entertainment places in their early years were posted online, and the melon-eating masses who did not know the truth were eager to express their ridiculous justice, accusing Tenhui of using children for personal gain, and the students of Tenhui Club were also disqualified from the competition because they did not have school status. For a moment, Xiang Tenghui became the finger of a thousand husbands, and his good deeds of adopting orphans were like a seed with nowhere to be placed, blown into Daliangshan Mountain by the raging yin wind.

Public opinion is a formidable force that can both move things forward and destroy existing harmony. Xiang Tenghui had no choice but to change the children raised to other clubs, and that parting night was also like the scene when Cheng Yong was forced to announce to the team that he would give up the exclusive agent of Indian miracle medicine in "I Am Not the God of Medicine". Cheng Yong's departure caused Lu to benefit from the fact that he could not afford cheap medicine and died of illness, and the fighting boy who Xiang Tenhui personally trained fell apart, some returned to their old business as adulterers, and some were seriously injured in their legs and feet. And these should not become movie bridges that we have seen and forgotten, we should reflect on whether we are also unintentionally becoming accomplices of evil, and playing a reverse role in promoting the plausible justice?

"In the Octagon Cage" portrays the helpless hesitation when Xiang Tenghui despairs, and uses a scene of Sichuan opera changing faces. Which of those revealing faces is real? Perhaps, only constant change can conform to the evil human heart, which is the root of all the right and wrong in the world.

Xiang Tenghui sees that the children who have finally crawled out of the abyss have once again fallen to the bottom, and he is determined to single-handedly seek justice from this indiscriminate world. Xiang Tenghui took the initiative to accept media interviews, and in front of the camera, he responded to all speculation and doubts with a series of follow-up questions. Wang Baoqiang's performance is intricate, we see a glorious and frank individual on the stage, while the black pressure under the stage is hiding in the shadows, which is obviously a very allegorical deliberate performance.

The same performance also appeared in Su Mu's fight at the end of the film. At this point, the screen switches to black and white, but when it turns off-site, it returns to color. I believe that this design is to make us think about black and white in a broad sense, and through the most primitive fighting instinct of human beings, it is revealed that the laws of the jungle in society still have irreplaceable logic. Su Mu won, but it does not mean that the children of Daliangshan have won collectively, and the key to changing their fate is still in the hands of a pair of invisible invisible hands.

In a sense, Wang Baoqiang's success today is similar to the experience of the fighting boy in the film. "In the Octagon Cage" tells inspirational stories, but all inspirational is by no means a three-word chicken soup for the soul, which contains twists and turns, suffering, hardships and even darkness that others cannot experience. Each of us is trapped in the octagon of reality, and what we have to do is not to knock out the opponent, but to make sure that we are always standing.