"Under the White Sun" is adapted from a series of vicious incidents in elderly homes that once caused a sensation in Hong Kong. In the video, A1 News Agency received a report of abuse of a resident in a disabled residential care home, and the reporter sneaked into the residential care home for a long time to make an unannounced visit to expose the inhuman life under the daylight. (Data map)
Lin Baoyi takes on a role, usually because he likes it, but the dean Zhang Jianhua in the movie "Under the White Sun" makes him hate it to the point of hate. After the shooting, he asked the director, "Is the filming really finished?" I went to cut my hair. "Within a few hours, I was back to Bowie Lin and left him very quickly. ”
In April 2024, on the eve of the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards, Lin Baoyi and "Under the Day" director Jian Junjin were interviewed by Southern Weekend. On the other end of the phone, Lin Baoyi sometimes returned to the dean's tone, "Hello" and "Really", but when it came to the role, he became serious and occasionally spoke quickly.
"Under the White Sun" is produced by Er Dongsheng and directed by Hong Kong's cutting-edge director Jian Junjin, adapted from a series of vicious events in elderly homes that once caused a sensation in Hong Kong, and the preliminary preparation lasted for five years. In the film, A1 News Agency received a report of abuse of residents in a disabled home "Caiqiao Home", and reporter Ling Xiaoqi sneaked into the home, and after a long-term unannounced visit, exposed the inhuman life under the daylight.
As a reality film, the film has received much praise and attention since its release in Hong Kong in November 2023, gained praise and attention at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and also won 16 nominations at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards, and finally won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and other awards. Lin Baoyi is regarded as the "folk actor" of this year's Academy Awards because of her breakthrough performance as the villain dean in the film.
In an interview with a reporter from Southern Weekly, Lin Baoyi said that at the beginning, she did not play the role of Zhang Jianhua with a strong sense of mission, "I didn't think that "Under the White Sun" would be so successful." He thought that "it would be down in a few days", until many friends mentioned to him, the media came to visit, and a sense of mission gradually emerged, and he hoped that more people would come to "see what is going on around you".
What can I do as a filmmaker?
Four years ago, Kan and a group of new Hong Kong directors often got together to discuss each other's projects. At that time, when talking about who Zhang Jianhua was looking to play, Chen Jianlang, the director of "Hand Rolled Cigarettes", and Huang Qilin, the director of "Jindu", suggested that it was better to use Lin Baoyi. "Because he is a very professional actor who wants to break through himself and constantly wants to challenge himself. Jian Junjin explained.
At that time, Lin Baoyi was busy producing and starring in "Bridge of Sighs", and there was no schedule, so she quickly refused. And Jian Junjin was unable to start filming for a while because he did not find investors. Later, when he was finally ready to shoot, he successively found many actors who were rejected, and the boss Louis Koo even said that if there was really no one to act, he would act.
Later, one night Gu Tianle and Lin Baoyi had dinner, and when he came back, he asked Jian Junjin, have you ever thought about Bao Yi? Jian Junjin said that he was the first person to push off this role a few years ago, Gu Tianle was very surprised, "There is no reason, is there a mistake?" This time, Louis Koo gave Lin Baoyi a complete script, and after reading it, Lin Baoyi thought that the dean's role had a lot of room for performance, and the only concern was that he had no experience in amblyopia, and he had no amblyopic friends around him.
A few days later, the film company helped find a patient with amblyopia. When we first met in the company, Lin Baoyi found that it was not enough to just sit and chat, and when it was time, he said to the director, let's go have lunch. He stood aside to watch the visually impaired man go up and down the stairs and walk, and he also paid attention to his every move when eating, and sometimes asked him if you could see anything in front of him, and the other party said that he could see it, but he didn't know what it was, only a vague outline. After that meal, Lin Baoyi took "all the body language on his body" and took it home to integrate with the characters and script.
"Under the White Sun" is based on a series of true events. In May 2015, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper revealed that elderly residents of the Cambridge Nursing Home for the Elderly, a home for the elderly in Tai Po, had been stripped naked, sat in wheelchairs, and bathed in the open air on the rooftop. Previously, the Social Welfare Department had inspected the residential care home concerned more than 100 times and received 12 complaints in five years, but the residential care home had never been prosecuted. After the incident was exposed, it shocked the whole Hong Kong and was considered to have "seriously damaged the dignity of the elderly", and some floors of the nursing home were not renewed.
In May 2015, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper revealed that elderly residents of the Cambridge Nursing Home for the Elderly, a home for the elderly in Tai Po, had been stripped naked, sat in wheelchairs, and bathed in the open air on the rooftop. The picture shows stills. (Data map)
In June 2016, according to a report by HK01, the Kwai Chung Residential Care Home for the Disabled "National Treasure Home" was suspected of abuse, and the mentally handicapped residents were tied to beds and toilets, and suffered burns due to neglect of care. The residential care home concerned had raised the accommodation fee five times in one year, but the diet and environment were quite poor, and the residents had to serve vegetables and fish siu mai as the main meal.
After the publication of the report, HK01 received more reports about alleged abuse in residential care homes. In August 2016, a 14-year-old boy with autism fell from a building at the Kangqiao Home in Kwai Chung, the sixth homicide in eight months.
At the same time, in 2014, Cheung Kin-wah, the former director of Kangqiao Home, was charged with illegal sexual intercourse with a female resident with moderate intellectual disability, whose intelligence was only equivalent to that of an 8-year-old child, and the evidence held by the prosecution included a video confession by the female victim that Cheung had inserted her penis into her lower body, and the police found semen in the trash can of Cheung's office that was stained with semen that matched Zhang's DNA and a mixture that matched the victim's DNA.
As the victim suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had not been able to recover, experts believed that forcing her to appear in court would make it more difficult for her to recover. When the DoJ dropped the charges in May 2016, District Court Judge Chan Kwong-chi said the dismissal was a "misfortune" for the victims and the community.
In addition, the staff of "Cambridge Home" slapped residents with rattans, distributed expired food to residents, rats infested in the home, and Zhang Jianhua argued in a video interview with "Hong Kong 01" that "he is the victim", etc., all these real-life events are presented in "Under the White Sun".
Kan interviewed many journalists, frontline social workers, parliamentarians, researchers in the social welfare sector, and also met some family members in real incidents. When he saw the news, he had a lingering feeling that he thought of himself and his family, and he asked himself, "What can I do as a filmmaker?"
"No one of the bad guys thinks they're bad"
Jian Junjin provided a lot of news materials to Lin Baoyi, and Lin Baoyi said that he knew how to do it. But how to perform, you don't know how to design until you get to the shooting site. The process went smoothly, and it was probably one or two over, "so I filmed for more than ten days and cut my hair."
For his performance, Lin Baoyi feels that "it can be a little better", and he wants the audience to see him through the screen He also has a chilling feeling, "knowing that this person is a bad person". He mentioned the murderer played by Anthony Hopkins in "The Silence of the Lambs", "As soon as you appear, you are very cold, what method will he use to kill people, who will be killed by him."
He believes that the dean in the movie has this level of performance, "I feel this way in the magazine (interviewed) and outside the courtroom." Some friends told him that when he watched the movie, when the dean appeared, he didn't think he was a bad guy, but Lin Baoyi believed that the bad guys in the real world couldn't see it, "no bad guy thinks he is bad", and he must have his own set of reasons.
Jian Junjin believes that the so-called mediocre evil is because of crossing certain bottom lines, you and I have the opportunity to become this kind of demon. The same is true of this dean, in his world, he must feel that he is the protagonist and is doing the right thing, but maybe that is a distorted truth, and we are all living in an ambiguous cycle of good and evil, good and evil. He told Southern Weekend that the role of the dean is not to portray a person who is a great traitor, "As a disabled person, some people will do good things with this background, but some people choose another path." For him, I believe he really understands the pressures and difficulties of the daily lives of people with disabilities or disadvantaged groups, but he chose one direction to do evil. ”
Before filming, Lin Baoyi did not write a character biography for Zhang Jianhua, because there were already many elements in the news report, "It's like cooking, a little bit of this, a little bit of that." After arriving at the scene, this is okay, I can use this performance method to play the dean, this should be very good. ”
For example, the ice cream that the dean lured Xiaoling was thought of by the screenwriter, and the toy musical instruments in the office were asked by Lin Baoyi for the Taoist furniture team, "This can attract children to come." The scene where the dean sexually assaulted Xiaoling, Lin Baoyi thought it was a little difficult when she read the script at home, but when she arrived at the scene, the rival actors and directors cooperated smoothly, and one or two passed.
The toy musical instruments that attract girls in the office are Lim Baoyi's own design. (Data map)
In his opinion, the point of this scene is how the dean brings the underage and mentally handicapped Xiao Suzu into the room, and this process must make the audience look reasonable, which is not in the script. Later, he came up with the idea of picking his ears.
In the disabled home, there is no one to take care of the residents on a daily basis, so the "trivial tasks" such as ear picking are only done by the dean. He also thought of cutting his nails, and people with amblyopia needed to pull their hands in front of their eyes to see clearly, but he felt that picking ears would be more intimate.
So we made the ear-picking a devil's show. You have to be very close to Suzu to see what is in her ears, and after reading it, you can actually smell Suzu's body odor, which will trigger other bad thoughts and imaginations. This is the part that an actor should create when performing. Lin Baoyi explained to a reporter from Southern Weekly.
In addition, one of the creative details that impressed him deeply was that after the president attended the courtroom, he took out a piece of paper with his appeal written and shouted to the media. "Actually, there is no paper in the script, and when I arrived at the scene, I told the director that I needed a piece of paper. ”
He believed that the president had anticipated that the court would not be able to convict him, so he had already written the appeal the night before. The dean told the media at the scene, "For so many years, I have treated the residents as my own family. Because of the media's pre-trial verdict, I became a victim of false reports, and today's verdict can be said to be a justice for me...... I am the victim. I will recover the full costs of the unreasonable surveillance from the Department of Justice and, in particular, the irresponsible media. ”
That line is a climax of the whole film, and after studying it from the perspective of dramatic rhythm, Lin Baoyi and the screenwriter believe that the two most important lines are the dean's demand for compensation for litigation costs, "He is a person who broke the law, and he also asks for compensation."
In fact, when his appeal was spoken, all the opponents in the play would be very angry after listening to it, because he did it on purpose, he didn't write it at the time, he had already thought about it. Lin Baoyi interpreted.
In the movie, after the dean played by Lin Baoyi was acquitted by the court, he took out a piece of paper with his appeal written and shouted to the media. (Data map)
"Many people's voices are not heard in society"
"Hong Kong 01" investigation team reporters Lo Hin-leung and Long Wanqi divided the report on the incident in the disabled home into two lines: the shady investigation of the mysterious death in the home, and the suspected sexual assault case of the former director.
Jian Junjin said frankly that in addition to showing the care of vulnerable groups and the plight of caring for the elderly, he also hopes to focus on the inner struggles and contradictions of journalists. After chatting with journalists, he found that similar to filmmakers, people are trying to find stories, but people "still care about the truth?"
In the film, in the protagonist of reporter Ling Xiaoqi, he deliberately shaped her realistic side. Because of the actual contact, he found that many reporters packaged themselves with a feeling of "indifference and stubbornness", did not reveal a sense of justice, and "slowly put it away".
In the protagonist of reporter Ling Xiaoqi, Jian Junjin deliberately shaped her realistic side. Because of the actual contact, he found that many reporters packaged themselves with a feeling of "indifference and stubbornness", and did not reveal a sense of justice. (Data map)
Ling Xiaoqi claimed that she had never shed tears for the news in her career, but at the end of the film, there was a scene of her crying in the car. Jian Junjin said that this scene just proves that she used to be driven by strong emotions to pursue this profession, "so the contradictions and struggles of journalists are in this place, they are fighting on the surface and inside, so she can't help but cry about this in the end." Of course, her tears, the protagonist played by Yu Xiangning, I think I suppressed it for a long time, and finally released her emotions in the car, because Tongbo's words made her feel relieved. ”
"Under the White Sun" does not have a happy ending, the perpetrators are not brought to justice, and after the license of the institution involved is revoked, the residents are homeless in the heavy rain, accusing the reporter who exposed the truth of being a bad spirit. This ending design is seen as anti-climax, and Jian Junjin explained that he did not deliberately create a counter-climactic plot, but because reality is like this.
At that time, after the news report was published, the license of the disabled home was revoked, and Jian Junjin asked the reporter friend if he felt that he had done a great thing? The reporter friend replied that he did, but he was also scolded and blamed by many family members, because after the report was published, many residents were homeless and very embarrassed, and there was no place to relocate.
"It immediately occurred to me that when we do something with good intentions, sometimes the result may not be as we expected, but does it mean that we are no longer stubborn?" Mr. Jian said.
In the process of researching the information, Jian Junjin knew that others could not fully understand the victims, but hoped that "we should try to feel more than we understand". "We don't do a lot of things well, so these problems arise, and many people's voices are not heard in the society, but I hope we start from small things, cherish the people around us more, or understand and help the people around us, I believe that the society will be very different. ”
The movie does not give a happy ending, and after the license of the institution involved is revoked, the residents are homeless in the heavy rain, accusing the reporter who exposed the truth of being a bad person. This ending is also derived from reality. (Data map)
According to recent reports by Hong Kong media, Cheung Kin-wah, the former director of Hong Kiu Home, a private residential care home for the disabled in Kwai Chung, whose licence has been revoked, was accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a female resident with intellectual disabilities, and the Department of Justice withdrew the case because the resident was unfit to give evidence, and the family members of the residents claimed about HK$1.34 million from Cheung Kin-wah and other three defendants in the District Court in the early years. On March 25, 2024, the judge handed down a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, confirming that Cheung Kin-wah had sexually assaulted the victim in his office at the time of the incident, calling his evidence "far-fetched" and "ridiculous", and that Cheung Kin-wah and Kangqiao Home should pay a total of about HK$1.194 million in compensation, of which 70% should be borne by Cheung.
After the movie was released, when Jian Junjin was eating, he heard the next table discussing "Under the White Sun". They are people in the social welfare sector, not talking about the plot, but about how to make the industry better. "If there is no evil retribution, and if there is no good retribution, why should people still stubbornly choose good? I believe that not everything should be done by looking at the result, especially the good thing. ”
Southern Weekly reporter Fu Ziyang and Southern Weekly intern Dong Jiadi
Editor-in-charge: Li Muyan