This is the earliest story of the "Ten Strange Cases in Hong Kong", also known as the "First of the Top Ten Strange Cases in Hong Kong".
When the case was solved in 1962, the whole of Hong Kong was sensationalized. Countless citizens flocked to the streets to buy newspapers and follow the trial, which lasted more than half a month.
In the course of the trial, a variety of farces broke out again, first the criminal accused the police of coercing a confession to sign false testimony, and then the two sides had doubts about the true identity of the victim, until the criminal was sentenced, they still shouted that they had been wronged.
What's so strange about this case?
In 1989, "The Strange Case of the Three Wolves", co-produced by Jiahe Film and Ma Dangxiong Production Co., Ltd., truly restored the criminal case that caused a sensation in Hong Kong that year.
The film used the most luxurious cast at that time, with Leung Ka Fai, Zheng Zeshi and Xu Jinjiang playing the three protagonists of the case.
Today, Right Shijun will introduce this classic crime film based on a real case.
01
The film "The Case of the Three Wolves" opens in black and white, which is in stark contrast to the end of the story.
The three children learned to kneel in front of the statue of Guan Gong like adults and prostrate themselves, and the sentence "Do not seek to be born in the same month of the same year, but only die in the same month of the same year" has become the biggest irony of the whole movie.
Years later, the three children grew to adulthood.
Li Huai (played by Leung Ka Fai) became a small employee of a company, enduring the oppression and bullying of his boss every day.
Ma Ercan (played by Zheng Zeshi) became a makeup artist, running between various crews every day to make a living for a family of seven.
Deng Zijing (played by Xu Jinjiang) became a driving school teacher, and all day long he was abducted and tricked into hooking up with girls and not doing his job.
Yes, they are a group of young people living at the bottom of society, looked down upon and willingly degenerate.
Li Huai's boss is a miser, and he is difficult for employees everywhere, and has repeatedly exposed the three brothers in public.
What is even more infuriating is the boss's son Huang Yingqiu, who does not treat his subordinates as people at all, and even flirts with Li Huai's girlfriend in person.
The three brothers get together to drink alcohol, and Li Huai scolds the boss after drinking. Ma Ercan, who was on the side, helped his brother vent his emotions and casually said, "No, we will kidnap them, and then we can still ask for a ransom." ”
Unexpectedly, the speaker had no intention, the listener had a heart, and Deng Zijing and Li Huai were really moved by this sentence.
Ma Ercan's wife and children did not dare to participate, but at the instigation of his brothers, plus he really needed money too much, he agreed as soon as his mind was hot.
Unexpectedly, the plan of the three people was accidentally overheard by the gambling ghost "Big Snake Ming" outside the door. This man dared to do anything to make money because he was in debt.
The three brothers did not want to delay the big thing and pulled the "Great Snake Ming" into the gang.
The first step in the plan was to kidnap the boss's son Huang Yingqiu, but he did not expect the other party to recognize Li Huai's identity at a glance and fled in a hurry.
In the chase, the five people wrestled together, and the three brothers were all novices, and they accidentally beat Huang Yingqiu to death because they were too heavy.
After burying the body, several people cruelly cut off Huang Yingsu's ears as "evidence" and mailed them to the boss's home.
Since the man is dead, the plan must be carried out.
But they didn't think that the boss, the miserly ghost, was a dime a dozen for his son, and directly reported to the police.
The three brothers returned empty-handed, and when they couldn't get money, they hated the boss family even more. After a meal of planning, the boss became their next target.
With the experience of the first kidnapping, this time it is even more blatant. The three brothers kidnap the boss at the company and lock him in a wooden box that had been made in advance.
The three men, wearing "wolf-headed" masks, play the sound of train tracks in the house, mistaking the boss for thinking that he had been transferred to the field.
At the same time, the three brothers changed their voices to deceive the boss that he was a kidnapping group, and there were special people to watch over every day, and they had to get a ransom to release people.
At first, the boss resolutely refused to give the ransom, preferring to die rather than be soft, and then heard the three brothers say that their son Huang Yingqiu had been killed, and then gradually compromised.
The three brothers got a ransom of 500,000 and then released the boss. Most of the ransom was divided between the three brothers, leaving only tens of thousands of pieces for the "Great Snake Ming" to eliminate the disaster.
After this, the three brothers began a life of wealth.
Li Huai took his girlfriend to a high-end restaurant, and also booked a luxurious wedding abroad, ready to get married.
Deng Zijing returned to his hometown, bought new clothes and gifts for his mother, and accompanied his mother to take care of them carefully.
Ma Ercan invited neighbors and friends to save face for his wife and let everyone look at him with admiration.
Unexpectedly, the unexpected arrival of "Great Snake Ming" broke the happy time of the three brothers. The boy lost all the ransom because of the bad bet, and after being cornered, he told others about their crime.
The three brothers were afraid that the matter would be exposed and wanted to kill the "Great Snake Ming" together. As a result, the boy was lucky enough to crash into a police car during the escape and recover a life.
The police found loopholes in the interrogation and finally determined the whereabouts of the criminals in the "Three Wolves Case".
At this point, the famous "Three Wolves Case" in Hong Kong history has finally been solved, but the movie "The Strange Case of three wolves" has not ended here, and the director has profoundly shown the tragedy after the case was solved from a more human perspective.
02
The classic of "The Strange Case of the Three Wolves" does not lie in the beginning and end of this real strange case, but exposes the human compassion behind the case from an objective perspective.
After the three brothers were arrested, they were sentenced by the court to "death by hanging their heads until they died of exhaustion."
The three men pinned their last hopes on the Empress's amnesty, because Hong Kong law was still based on British criminal law, and they wrote to plead for care to be exempt from the death penalty, but the result was not what they wanted.
Faced with the imminent execution, the three people regretted it.
Ma Ercan's wife and children came to see him for the last time in prison, and even though her husband had done such a wrong thing, the woman still did not say a word of cruelty.
Deng Zijing did not see his mother face, and he died with the letter that his mother had written to him.
The letter said: "You can rest assured, when you get to the bottom of the Yama King's punishment, you will say that your mother has no way to teach your son, all the sins are borne by your mother, and your mother will soon come down." ”
Li Huai was the most miserable of several people, and his pregnant girlfriend accidentally slipped and eventually failed to meet him.
What is even more ironic is that the plot of the opening scene appears again at the end of the movie, and the three children prostrate themselves side by side and "die on the same day in the same year" is really fulfilled.
The reason why the "Three Wolves case" is called a strange case is, on the one hand, various accidents that constantly arise during the trial process. Another major reason is that Huang Yingqiu has not solved the case for more than two years after his death.
In the past two years, the police have done various investigations and still did not suspect the three brothers, until two years later, Huang Yingqiu's father was kidnapped again.
The three brothers kidnapped the same father and son for two consecutive years, and everything was done seamlessly, but in the end, the gambler "Big Snake Ming" exposed his whereabouts.
In the two years since Huang Yingqiu disappeared, the attention of Hong Kong society to this case has continued to increase, and it has finally become a "strange case".
03
The plot of the movie "The Three Wolves" is very tight, and there is almost no drag.
The story tightly weaves together the process of the three brothers' discrimination to their rebellion and then to confession and punishment.
Objectively speaking, the three people are not bad at all, they are only caused by an impulse to cause an irreversible disaster.
When Deng Zijing had no money, he did not dare to go home to see his mother. When he had money, he immediately went home to buy clothes for his mother and climbed the mountain to play on her back.
Li Huai was weak and incompetent when he had no money, but he took good care of his girlfriend. After having money, not only did not spend money, but took the initiative to propose marriage.
When Ma Ercan had no money, the neighbors looked down on him, the family was so poor that they were reluctant to eat breakfast, and his wife would rather be hungry than let him eat enough.
After having money, Ma Ercan invited all the neighbors to dinner and sang love songs to his wife in front of him, which saved the face of the whole family.
One is affectionate to his girlfriend, one is grateful to his wife, and one is filial to his mother.
Liang Jiahui, Zheng Zeshi and Xu Jinjiang perfectly interpreted three characters with different personality characteristics with superb acting skills.
Even after watching the movie, the audience once had a feeling of sympathy and pity.
Although they live in the bottom society, they are not willing to give in to kindness, and they can no longer save their ordinary lives because of a momentary impulse.
This process of getting better is a wake-up call to a society that is indifferent to discrimination against those who are lucky.
I'm Right Stone Jun, sharing with you those classic movies that are worth collecting!