A video six years ago aroused the attention and heated discussion of netizens. In the video, two skinny, teenage children are topless and beat each other with fists. After many netizens saw the video, the first thing they thought of was whether these children had been abused.
After the intervention of netizens, the children were finally rescued from the place known as the "Demon Cave". Netizens thought that they had finally got rid of the fate of being "tools", thinking that they could get a better life. However, it was not until six years later, when the movie "In the Octagon" was released, that the truth of that year was really revealed. It turned out that everyone misunderstood.
"In the Octagon Cage" has now reached 800 million at the box office, ranking 11th at the annual box office, and this is only the fourth day of the film's release.
Wang Baoqiang has a high status in the film and television industry, but he is still only a newcomer in the directing industry. Why did he achieve so much success? The answer is actually quite simple, this movie is really great.
Wang Baoqiang spent six full years in order to create an excellent script. The phrase "adapted from real people and true events" that appears in the film is also enough to show Wang Baoqiang's sincerity. At the time of the movie release roadshow, there appeared Embo, the founder of the Embo Fight Club. His character in the film, Xiang Tenghui, is the prototype of the real events in the film. This particular story takes place in 2017 about the events of "fighting orphans".
These children are orphans and left-behind children in Sichuan's Daliangshan region, some of whom have parents left behind because of part-time work, while others have no father or mother. They punch in the Embo Fight Club to earn a living. As soon as this news came to light, it triggered indignation among the general public about the club, believing that Embo's use of these children to make money was absolutely intolerable.
Media reports, fueled by public opinion, have worsened the situation. The government intervened, and eventually 17 children were sent back to their hometown, Liangshan. The scene of the children coming home was poignant, they got into the car in tears, and the parents almost forcibly took them back. This scene made netizens feel confused, they did not know whether these children were really persecuted or for some other reason.
The development of the matter eventually attracted the attention of higher authorities, and the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Civil Affairs personally intervened in the investigation. The Ministry of Education also released the results of the survey at a press conference. According to Wang Dai, an official at the Ministry of Education, the Embo Fight Club is a formal sports school, and the children in it are voluntary, and they are not subjected to abuse and persecution.
The official intervention gave a clearer picture of things. It was months before positive reports from Embo began to emerge. It turned out that Embo himself was a veteran armed police officer and soldier, and after his discharge from the army, he opened a fighting club with his discharge money. At first, he only accommodated some homeless children who loved martial arts, but as these children excelled in the competition, more and more parents sent their children here. To adapt to the situation, Empo had to take in more children.
With the change of public opinion, the children who were sent home before eventually returned to this familiar place. The Embo Fight Club has also acquired a full "sports school" qualification with the help of the government. In the movie "In the Octagon Cage", everything that Embo did was copied by Wang Baoqiang into the movie. In the film, Sumu Darki is a signing for the UFC Ultimate Fighting Championship and one of the prototypes for some minor characters in the film.
In the movie, he said a very representative sentence to Tenhui: "I tricked them out of that ravine, I tricked them into practicing martial arts." If you call me a liar, then I'm a liar. This simple sentence truly expresses the efforts and sacrifices that Xiang Tenghui and Embo have made for the children.
The movie "In the Octagon Cage" has won the love of the audience with its true and moving story. Wang Baoqiang not only personally went to Daliangshan to select amateur children for this movie, but also practiced Sichuan dialect for a long time. He has given a lot for this film, and he hopes to give the audience a sincere gift through this film, and at the same time find a real way out for those children.
"In the Octagon" tells us a story about kindness and truth. This is a story full of Chinese kindness and blood, which shows us China's own story and spirit. In this era of increased social anger, we need more such true and touching stories to bring us spiritual satisfaction and resonance. This movie makes us feel the kindness and blood in our bones in the simplest and most profound way Chinese. Thank you to director Baoqiang for filming this story in the mountains so that more people can see it.
