From ecstasy to loss.
One of Hong Kong's films of the year last year, it ranked among the top five box office in Hong Kong in 2023, with a Douban score of 8.2 (currently 8.1).
led this year's Academy Awards with 16 nominations, and finally won three awards: Best Actress (Yu Xiangning), Best Supporting Actress (Liang Yongting) and Best Supporting Actor (Jiang David).
Produced by Er Dongsheng.
Jiang David, Lin Baoyi, Yu Xiangning, three generations of Hong Kong filmmakers starring.
It is said that this is the first time Lin Baoyi has played a villain, which is completely different from previous roles.
So when the news of the introduction of the mainland came, Sir was really happy.
Finally, in broad daylight, I can see:
Under the white sun
But after the painting opened, the box office and discussion were deserted.
Three days after its release, the current box office is only 6 million, and the discussion on the Internet is not high, which is in stark contrast to "Removing Three Evils Around the Week":
One received a mediocre response in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets, but it was a big hit in the mainland market, while the other set off a movie-watching boom in the Hong Kong market, but it was almost silent in the mainland market.
Why is there no co-frequency resonance?
When everyone complains that there are only social topic movies in cinemas now, and there are no realistic movies.
"Under the White Sun" appears in front of us with an iron-clad attitude.
It shouldn't be forgotten.
Today it is necessary to talk about this film, and about our social visibility.
01
What is the reality?
"Under the White Sun" incorporates a number of real-life events that have caused a sensation in Hong Kong.
In 2014, the director of the Cambridge Home was suspected of sexual assault, in 2015, the Cambridge Nursing Home was abused in the open and naked bathing of the elderly, in 2016, the disability home was siu mai and boiled vegetables were delivered, and in 2019, the "6 residents died mysteriously within 8 months" of the same Kangqiao Home.
"Adapted from real events", an important step in the film is restoration.
Reporter Xiaoqi (played by Yu Xiangning) pretended to be the granddaughter of Tongbo (played by Jiang David), infiltrated the Caiqiao House, and followed her vision to unfold the life of the elderly and disabled in the home.
Here's the big scale on another level:
The old man was tied to the bed and electrocuted, telling that the heavens should not be called the earth;
Disobedient? There are even more ruthless, the nurse picks up the stapler and plunges it into the arm of the resident;
Expired siu mai is the only side dish for meals day after day, and it must be picked up and eaten when it falls to the ground.
Water.
It is an important image of this evil.
The most striking scene in the film is that of an elderly man with limited mobility who is tied to a wheelchair and pushed naked onto an open-air balcony.
The nurse wore black gloves, like an executioner, and held a high-pressure water gun with an impatient and indifferent expression, hitting the old people with a powerful, cold stream of water.
The old people hung their heads and drenched in water without dignity.
Clean water became an instrument of evil.
There's also a scene about water that is easy to overlook.
On the day of SWD's inspection, an elderly person passed away in the residential care home.
No one was silent.
Outside the room, people were busy cleaning up and greeting the leaders of SWD, while the old man, who had lost his breath, was lying in his room, his body gradually stiffening.
Finally, a basin of water was poured down, washing away the traces of the old man's existence and covering up the sins of concealment and non-reporting in the institution.
Clean water is also a tool to cover up sin.
The existence of the house is like this water, which appears to be clean and innocent on the outside, but in fact it does evil in the name of good.
The question is, is this home the only one that is "water"?
The film does not stop at restoration, but also excavates and tortures.
Tumber said that it was the same everywhere he went.
SWD outsources the management of welfare homes, which is equivalent to outsourcing all responsibilities.
The management, knowing that two caregivers were not enough to take care of 80 residents, still did so in order to reduce costs and increase profits.
Even newspapers that shouted that they wanted to "blame the whole system" were once part of covering up their crimes.
The nurse who first reported the problem at the home said that she had sent the report materials to many newspapers.
But there was only one newspaper that really went to investigate.
In addition to the system, the film also wants to present and torture more: the helpless reality that even the system can't make up.
Sir wants to share two scenes that are very touched.
One is that on the day of the death of Tumber's roommate and friend, Tumber curled up in bed and stared at his friend's empty bed.
After a while, the nurse led another old man in, and the old man's empty bed immediately became the home of the new one.
He lay down happily and fell asleep, while Thunber remained sadly watching.
"People and people's joys and sorrows are not connected", the collision of sorrow and joy in the same picture is very impactful.
What's even more impactful is that this bed, the size of a coffee seat, is an old man who has been waiting for 8-16 years before he arrives.
The reality of resource scarcity and inability to allocate resources is more frustrating than the anger over the unfair distribution of resources.
The other is the villain in the film, Dean Zhang Jianhua (played by Lin Baoyi), when facing everyone's accusations, he said confidently:
I am the only one who gave them a home, and it was not me who abandoned them, but their family and society.
It is true that he is arguing for his evil deeds.
But the person who really made the elderly and the disabled have tiles to cover their heads in the film is actually a bad guy who is intolerable, so where did the others go?
Such a strange thing is a naked reality in broad daylight.
02
What is the news
The other line of the story follows Xiaoqi to focus on the plight of the news industry.
In the past two years, there have been many Chinese films and television involved in the news media industry.
"More than Endless" is also an adaptation of a number of real events, filming the reporter's strength to die for the truth, but in the end, he gently let go of the dilemma between reporting truth and ethics.
"Hot Search" is cut from the perspective of new media, if it is according to the habits of the Hong Kong industry, this is the story of the "traffic factory" first to make up stories to win eyeballs, and then to grab the hot search for the truth, which is still the gameplay of the traffic factory.
Although "News Queen" has rekindled the public's attention to TVB's professional dramas, and also used the case of abuse of the elderly in the nursing home as the material in the play, it is essentially a palace fight drama dressed in the skin of journalism.
And what about "Under the White Sun"?
Frankly speaking, it still has the heroic colors and habitual routines common in news film and television:
In order to pursue truth and justice, the reporter continued to cry, from saying "I never shed tears" at the beginning, to crying like a "slap in the face" at the end.
But in addition, the news industry under the lens exudes a decadent atmosphere of idealism dying out.
Xiaoqi and her department initially chose to settle in the home, not only for the sake of truth, justice, and a sense of mission.
It's about their own practical problems: raising salaries, getting bonuses, and keeping their jobs.
In the last second, the boss also told the new reporter: work hard for the sense of mission in my heart.
In the next second, the boss confirmed with Xiaoqi: Is this news sure that it will explode? We have to keep our jobs first, and if there is no big news, we will have to eat the northwest wind.
The higher-ups have to reduce their budgets and make major layoffs, and the news investigation team will lose their jobs and be laid off at any time.
I'm about to run out of food, so I don't care if others have anything to eat.
After the explosion, everyone applauded Xiaoqi, did they appreciate her professional ability?
It's more like thanking her, thanks to this single news, everyone has a job and food.
The male colleague who has been assisting told her: remember to ask your boss to increase her salary.
The boss Xizizi said to Xiaoqi: Because of this big news, the boss decided to stay with the investigation team for two more days.
Many. Two. Sky.
Their own livelihoods remain at stake.
The film further asks a question:
The truth is revealed, and then what?
is different from the successful narrative after the truth is revealed in general news films and television, "Light of the Day" reveals everywhere the unfinished state after the truth is revealed.
Share two details.
One is that Xiaoqi "kicked out" the inside of the home, the house was closed, and the residents were moved out collectively.
When everyone saw Xiaoqi appear, their first reaction was anger and accusation:
"Ba Po, be nosy, if it weren't for you, our lives wouldn't have been disrupted. ”
For those who have nowhere else to go, the truth is detrimental to their interests.
is like the dispute between intern Han Dong (played by Bai Ke) and his boss Huang Jiang (played by Zhang Songwen) in "More than Endless":
What happens when a news report comes out and reveals the truth, but the interests of the victim's family are harmed?
It's just that in "More than Endless", Han Dong chose to abide by the simple morality in his heart, and did not hesitate to contradict his boss, but also to withdraw his manuscript exposing the hepatitis B test.
And "Under the White Sun" chose to let Xiaoqi complete the step of revealing the truth, so that the journalist's dilemma remained on the screen intact.
In this scene, there is also the appearance of "water":
Heavenly underwear 滂沱 heavy rain.
People who pursue journalistic idealism and in the name of justice and kindness have left everyone without a tile, and can only get drenched in the rain.
At this time, the news people were also like old people in the past, drenched in heavy rain without dignity.
The next details to be shared, just after this scene.
With tears in her eyes, Xiaoqi drove away from the home in the rain.
It didn't take long for the rain to clear up, and she wiped the tears from her face.
This scene is easy to interpret as saying that there is always hope ahead.
But I remembered what my boss said before:
I have been in journalism for decades, I have done a lot of special topics, and there was a lot of repercussions at the time, but in two days, everyone will forget.
This drama, which quickly shifts from rain to sunny weather, is more like echoing the words of the boss:
No matter how much it boils, no matter how much pain, no matter how much truth, no matter how much effort you try, it will eventually be washed away and forgotten by the heavy rain of history.
There is a line in the movie:
Do you think ten years from now......
Will there be no journalists?
The present has become a reality.
There is not much left of the newspaper investigation team, and the entire news industry has become withered and withered, and it has lost its former vigor and vigor.
Director Jian Junjin himself said that he didn't expect it: ""Under the White Sun" seems to be a prophecy, predicting the death of the reporter and the end of the traditional newspaper investigation team. ”
But at a time when the reality that lacks the truth is already a reality, it happens to be the most coincidental and wonderful time to reproduce a movie that defends the news and defends the truth at this moment.
Once again, it reminds us that:
Journalism is the first draft of history.
I would also like to ask one more question:
News is the first draft of history, but what about movies?
03
What is a movie
Audiences who love to watch Hong Kong films should remember that a wave of Hong Kong films were also released in the mainland last year.
"Breaking Point", "Anti-Drug 3", "Stealth", "Goldfinger", ...... There is also "Temporary Robbery" at the beginning of the year.
Crime + action + police and bandits, trying to return to the peak of Hong Kong films where "everything is overheated and crazy".
can watch the faces of Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung and other kings arranged and combined on the screen, undercover, gunfights, fights, brotherhood, pros and villains and other elements have been on the battlefield again and again.
Even since "Infernal Affairs", Tony Leung and Andy Lau have reunited in "Goldfinger" after 21 years, which makes people can't help but sigh:
"Hong Kong movies are old. ”
The two Hong Kong films introduced in April, "Under the White Sun" and "Diary of a Youth" (released in the mainland on April 19), are actually very different from the inherent impression of Hong Kong films by our mainland audiences.
Their appearance sends us a signal: Hong Kong films are changing.
One is that the form of expression is changing.
is also a crime film, the treatment of "Under the White Sun" gives up the drama of a complete duel between good and evil, the excitement of chasing and catching the murderer, and is more life-oriented, more restrained and calm, and consciously reduces the spectacle of real events.
In fact, in the case of elder abuse in the nursing home, the real incident is that the elderly woman is treated like this, and in the film, the director consciously changed it to a man.
Although this treatment reduces the emotional provocation of the audience to a certain extent, it can avoid secondary harm to the victim:
I've always been most worried about the fear of consuming any victims in real events, and I don't want to turn their pain into a gimmick, how to carry their pain and present it again. We need to pay special attention to this matter.
The other is that the themes of Hong Kong films are becoming more realistic and closer to the lives of ordinary people.
In previous years, "Drifting in the Water", Wanderers, "Fallen People", migrant workers and people with disabilities.
This year's "Under the White Sun" focuses on the lonely elderly, the disabled, and the journalism industry around welfare homes, while "Youth Diary" focuses on the education of minors.
Another movie "Temporary Robbery" supervised by Er Dongsheng also follows the path of criminal action, showing the audience the plight of ordinary people's lives.
Alas, there is a side of hair that wants to do leprosy.
This kind of "change" is the effort of Hong Kong films to break inward and outward.
Facing the industry, the previous way of Hong Kong films will not work.
If you are poor, you will change, and if you change, you will ...... Whether it can be passed, not necessarily, but it is definitely not the way to go.
I've heard this for the past two years
The audience may think that Hong Kong films are all a routine
So this time it's also an attempt
Let's show it to a younger audience
It seems to give them a refreshing feeling
Facing outside the industry, this group of new directors who tend to be realistic are asking:
Maybe movies can change the world a little bit?
The initial motivation for filming "Under the White Sun" was that Jian Junjin saw a news report on the incident in the home, and after asking the participating reporters out to chat, he finalized that he wanted to make such a movie:
"What I'm concerned about is, can you remind those who are forgetful that there are people living in the shadows around him, what can we do?"
News is the first draft of history, and movies are (can) look back and interrogate history.
Zhang Jianhua's sexual assault case in "Under the White Sun", the prototype Zhang Jianhua is the same, escaping accusations and getting away with it.
The film not only traces the case, but also asks the legal system: Is it really right that so many systems have been established that in the end even a little girl cannot be protected?
After the film's release, the decade-long case was further promoted, with the civil lawsuit awarded in favor and compensation.
Under the daylight, the dawn is finally seen.
Did movies make a difference in the world?
Maybe a little.
But at least we can keep asking questions to the world through movies.
The picture in this article comes from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Unruly Eight Treasures