Two days ago, the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards came to an end.
That night, Tony Leung won the Best Actor Award for "Goldfinger", which was also the sixth time he won the Best Actor Award at the Academy Awards.
But this time, instead of lamenting that Tony Leung is an eternal god, more netizens are feeling uneasy about another name, he is Lin Baoyi.
Because at this Academy Awards, Lin Baoyi brought the most popular movie at this year's Academy Awards-
Under the White Sun
To evaluate Lam Baoyi, you can't just say that he is a Hong Kong actor.
Instead, "Forensic Record" was filmed in criminal investigation, "Wonderful Hands and Benevolence" was filmed in medical treatment, and financial themes include "The Great Era".
Gong Douli has the hit "Golden Branches Desire", the theme of the Republic of China filmed "Fire Dancing Yellow Sand", and the literary theme includes "Bridge of Sighs", which leads the new direction of Hong Kong films.
The love theme includes "Margaret and David", and the hexagonal warrior of "Jewels" was filmed in the business war film.
You must know that such a dazzling result is beyond the reach of many actors.
This time, "Under the White Sun" starring him is a theme that focuses on realism, and its social significance is even more far-reaching.
The story in the movie, based on real events, is adapted from a number of nursing home abuse cases in Hong Kong -
In 2014, the director of the Cambridge Home was suspected of having illegal sexual intercourse with a mentally handicapped woman, in 2015, the Cambridge nursing home was stripped naked and bathed in the open air, in 2016, the "National Treasure Home for the Disabled Residential Lorus was sold for boiled vegetables", and in the same year, the "6 residents died mysteriously within 8 months" in the Kangqiao Home.
The silent marginal people, the hidden pain of the speechless people in society, are all expressed and seen in this work.
To understand this movie, you need to first understand the true meaning of "under the white sun".
When the government does not have enough resources to take responsibility and can only outsource public services to the private sector, the fangs of capital cannibalism are exposed.
The story takes place in a private residential home in Hong Kong called "Choi Kiu House", where most of the people who live here are unsupervised elderly or physically disabled, mentally and mentally handicapped.
Social news reporter Ling Xiaoqi received an anonymous report that there may be abuse of residents in Caiqiao Home.
In order to investigate the truth of the incident, she pretended to be the granddaughter of a dementia resident, Tongbo, and entered the Caiqiao House in the name of helping to start an unannounced investigation.
The first half of the film focuses on exposing the abuse of inpatients and the trampling on human dignity of inpatients in private welfare homes.
From the severe shortage of beds, the cramped and dirty living environment, to the shortage of caregivers and chronic violence, all the dark sides are gradually exposed as the investigation deepens.
In fact, Ling Xiaoqi at the beginning of the investigation did not have such a strong sense of responsibility.
She is more concerned than the truth about how to write a sensational social news in Hong Kong as soon as possible as a springboard for promotion and salary increase.
In order to take a shortcut to get more insiders, she even went against the ethics of journalists and chose to spend money to bribe volunteers living in the home.
In the process of this investigation, Tong Bo of the institution was a good helper of Ling Xiaoqi.
Although the old man knew that the other party was an undercover agent, he deliberately did not expose it, and he did not point to Xiaoqi's intention from beginning to end.
Because in this hellish place, playing dumb is the way to live.
Like Tumber, there are many people with dementia living here.
Their living environment is littered with garbage and dead rats, but the dean sits idly by.
Eating is expired roasted wheat without any nutrients, and it is a problem to eat full.
Slapping and stabbing on the arm with a stapler are common, and even being taken to the open to shower with running water, women face horrific sexual assault.
Lonely and widowed elderly, mentally retarded, disabled, all living beings suffer.
So, the autistic teenager Ming Tsai jumped out of the window and fell to his death, and his mother lamented while burning paper, which can be regarded as letting go of the big stone in her heart, and jumping into it is not a relief;
Tongbo's friend Brother Shui, who rarely went out happily to attend his granddaughter's wedding, was swept out of the house by his daughter, and died quietly in his sleep the next day.
In the film, the night before Shui Bo's death, he talked to Tong Bo about the most comfortable feeling of death, like a wave of water, from the soles of his feet to the head, and the description was quiet and romantic, not afraid at all.
And before Ming Tsai jumped off the building, it was also romantic when he opened the window to watch the snowflakes falling in the patio-like sky surrounded by buildings.
The film conveys warm and romantic emotions when showing these people facing death, because for these people, death is their paradise.
But even so, more of the old, weak, sick and disabled have no choice but to accept it.
When a person dies, he is carried away in a black body bag, and as long as he tidies up a little, a new person will soon move in, and nothing will change, everything will be taken for granted.
With the help of Tongbo, Ling Xiaoqi finally photographed the evidence of elder abuse in the welfare home and got the fierce material she wanted.
Just as she and her colleagues had anticipated, the news immediately attracted great attention from the people of Hong Kong.
But will anything change?
After a lot of hard work to dig out the truth, the home was finally delisted, and a group of people waited for the relocation in the wind and rain.
They cover their heads with tiles, do not eat and sleep, even if they are humiliated and abused, even if they live without dignity, or they live on the streets, waiting for old age to die.
Which one will be their heart's desire, and will they have a choice?
The Department of Justice voluntarily withdrew the charge, and the victim, Xiaoling, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome and was unable to appear in court to charge the offender.
The director of the institution, Zhang Jianhua, faced five charges of sexual assault, but was released on the spot for lack of evidence on two occasions.
Welfare institutions, society, administrative institutions, and even family members work together to help and abuse, putting vulnerable groups in a very bad situation.
Journalists who want to change their situation seem to have become the public enemy of society as a whole, and they can only resign as a protest.
At the end of the film, Ling Xiaoqi was speeding in the heavy rain, half of the sunny day and half of the pouring water.
In this society of helplessness and sin, the power of individuals and small groups is insignificant, and there is a lot of helplessness.
What about the news explosion, the industry is still declining; the dean still can't fail, and has failed repeatedly in the past 20 years;
The truth was revealed, the canonical punishment was clear, the deceived nurses were not punished in any way, and the deceived residents did not necessarily appreciate it.
The problem remains, evil will not be rewarded, but good people often feel guilty.
For the poor, can innocence be lit up?
It's a pity that the box office of the movie released in the mainland has only exceeded 10 million so far, and the film schedule is even less pitiful.
The aroma of wine is also afraid of deep alleys, and it is too difficult for a good art film to be seen by more people.
In fact, Jian Junjin, the director of this movie last year, said that he ran many film companies at the beginning, but people were not interested in niche themes when they saw them, and they were not willing to invest, because such themes were most likely not popular and lost money.
In the end, he found Er Dongsheng, as an intermediary, and told Director Jian that it would be better to go to Boss Gu to try, and he might be able to help.
Who knew that Boss Gu saw him the next day after reading this script, and he said that he would definitely open this play, and only one Boss Gu would invest in such a theme in Hong Kong.
As a film that won three awards at this year's Academy Awards, it is enough to show the quality of the film.
But the end of a movie is not the award, but what kind of changes it can bring to reality, which is the more important meaning of "Under the White Sun".
If the aphasia can speak, the marginal person is no longer marginal.
We can understand that it is not the marginalized lips and tongues that should be examined more on the issue of the voices of the common people, but the ears in the center.