The most frustrating thing about Hong Kong films is that you think it's dead, but it just hangs on and occasionally blew up a good film, so you can't give up completely.
The real-life Hong Kong film "Under the White Sun" released in the mainland on April 12 should be regarded as the most explosive Hong Kong film in early 2024, and the chances of this Hong Kong film are similar to the most popular "Three Evils Everywhere" in March, all of which were released in the region in 2023, and then released in China after a few months.
And these two films have been nominated for many awards in the 2023 "Golden Horse" and 2024 "Golden Statue", and even now have the same score of 8.1 on Douban, so can "Under the White Sun" be as popular in the mainland as "Removing the Three Evils Around the Week"?
This problem is not risky from the perspective of the core and quality of the film!
"Under the White Sun" has a real carrier, which is based on the abuse of residents in Cambridge Nursing Home in 2015, and the alleged sexual assault of residents by the director of Cambridge Home in 2016, as well as the autistic boy jumping off the building, a total of six residents died mysteriously in half a year.
The movie is produced by Er Dongsheng, plus Jian Junjin, a personality director, who tells the story "straight fist", not twisting and turning, but not too sensational, especially straightforward.
At the beginning of the movie, the audience was directly taken to see all kinds of unbelievable abuses inside the "Caiqiao House", such as the hideous-faced Sister Fang
Bringing the elderly to the balcony to take a cold shower, whipping and mutilating the residents, the audience was outraged at the outset.
At the same time, through the perspective of a reporter, tell the public why there are still so many evils under the protection of the current social system.
The film tells us that although there are public welfare institutions in Hong Kong and various regulatory systems are very good, these resources are seriously insufficient, and people with intellectual disabilities need to wait in line for 15 years to wait for a bed, which is far from meeting the needs of people with real disabilities.
As a last resort, the Hong Kong government transferred these disabled people to private welfare homes, which have low fees and are more acceptable to ordinary families.
But they don't have a reasonable supervision system, and the 80 elderly people are only supervised by two caregivers, so you can imagine what will happen.
"Being old is a burden. It appears repeatedly in the movie lines, and conveys a social phenomenon of difficulty in providing for the elderly through the disabled and disabled elderly in the movie story.
The square in the story is a very ordinary female reporter, who is not a flawless heroic setting at the beginning, and has a lot of selfishness.
In order to get a promotion and a salary increase, she would "release the snake" and pretend to be the granddaughter of Uncle Tong, collect substantial evidence of the abuse of the elderly by the caregivers, and write a sensational social news in Hong Kong. In order to get a more exciting insider, he bribed the volunteers of the residential care home, and violated the journalistic profession.
But as the incident deepened, the female reporter finally felt a sense of social responsibility as a journalist and began to defend the rights of the weak with a righteous position.
It's a pity that her persistence and dedication did not bring the desired return, and the "Caiqiao House" was shut down by the government because of the exposure, but this is not a victory for the weak, because there are more residents who are displaced and homeless on this rainy day.
This contrast between reality and ideals makes the movie look like a fish in the throat.
The cast selection of "Under the White Sun" is also very good.
Because they couldn't find investment and didn't use Hong Kong's top stars, the actors in the movie were all acting, especially Jiang David who played Tongbo and Lin Baoyi who played Zhang Jianhua.
In this movie, Tumber is a leading character, he lives in a complex courtyard, pretends to be crazy and stupid about many things, even if the female reporter comes to inquire about the situation, he just lies on the bed casually, looking at him indifferently, which is a kind of knowing look.
His pattern is revealed when the license of the nursing home is revoked and the homeless resident scolds the female reporter, and what he says: Don't feel guilty for doing the right thing, is the core line of the whole movie.
Lin Baoyi, who plays Zhang Jianhua, the director of "Caiqiao House", is my favorite character, and the prototype should be Zhang Jianhua, the former director of "Kangqiao House", which is an extremely complex character, and he himself is also very pitiful, an abandoned disabled person.
He was the one who built the home, so that the disadvantaged people could have a safe place, he had a positive image, he was kind to most of the residents, and even took care of them for a long time when the house was understaffed.
But in the end, he broke the boundary between the victim and the perpetrator, and became the most reflective and regrettable character in the movie.
Lin Baoyi's performance is really convincing, the performance is delicate and disgusting, there is no flaw and abruptness in the transition between the two personalities, especially he himself is also very successful in his own PUA, when facing the doubts of female reporters, he can say without guilt: "These are the faults of the whole society."
At present, Lin Baoyi was nominated for the best actor for the first time with "Under the White Sun", which is indeed well deserved.
Although the word-of-mouth production of this Hong Kong film is good, the box office on the first day is not ideal, and the film schedule, especially the Cantonese film schedule, is pitiful.