"Mai Luren" has another more appropriate name in Hong Kong: Mai Refugee.
Homeless, landless, what is the difference between their rootlessness and refugees?
<h1>The Mai Lu people have no home</h1>
At the beginning of the film, a middle-aged man Abo (played by Aaron Kwok), wakes up on the desktop of the McDonald's restaurant, he holds a cup of tea next to his sleeping hands, and when he wakes up, he picks up the cup and pours it into his mouth, but pours the cup all over, and there is no drop of water in his mouth, because the cup does not know when it is empty.
He stood up, straightened out his torn suit, bent down to wipe the old leather shoes from his feet, and pulled out his messy hair, like a downcast gentleman.
He strolled out of the doorway, stood at the railing on the side of the road, skillfully lit a cigarette with both hands, took a deep breath, and then slowly spit it out, as if spewing out the troubles in his heart like blood.
The dark morning light is slightly dewy, the sun is moving, the street light is still flashing tiredly, under the faint street lamp, I see the large and small luggage under his feet, which is all his family property and hope.
The morning was determined and hopeful, but he did not have any of this, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he was planning for today's food and clothing.
He looked at the majestic cement forest, the smoking hand moved slightly, like those souls who had nowhere to rest, trembling slightly, this low mood, people inexplicably sad.
When he opened his locked duffel bag and dragged them to work, I learned that he was a passerby who had stayed in McDonald's.
I always thought that people who had no place to live would only stay in tunnels or under overpasses.
Unexpectedly, McDonald's also has it.
In my perception, business people will not accept this type of person, one is because they do not have the ability to buy, and the other is because their image will affect real customers.
However, at four o'clock in the morning in Haikou, let me change my mind about McDonald's, stepped on the door of McDonald's, and I felt a not quite right atmosphere.
In the darker places, there are people sleeping, pickpocketing, leaning against the wall, or lying directly, and there are large bags and small bags next to them, but in the dark you can see that their clothes are old and rotten, and I guess they should be wanderers.
However, such a scene deeply touched me, how heartwarming Uncle Mai did not abandon them, and became their safe haven.
<h1>Housing is difficult to achieve Mai Lu people</h1>
The Mai Lu people, this saying originated in Japan, that is, people who spend the night in the McDonald's 24-hour store.
This group, we may never have noticed, but in fact, they are not a minority:
According to the "24-hour Fast Food Restaurant Homeless Study" of the Hong Kong Association of Community Organizations, 384 overnight sleepers were found in 73 24-hour fast food restaurants in Hong Kong alone.
Of the 116 McRough people interviewed, the average age was 52, and the average respondent was at McDonald's and had been staying overnight for 23 months.
However, housing difficulties have always been a knot in the hearts of Hong Kong people. Moreover, the rent in Hong Kong is like a sky-high price, and it is narrow, and it is well known that there are cut houses and coffin houses.
Cut the house:
It is a housing unit, which is divided into many very small houses and then rented to many people.
How big is the area of the cut house: kitchen, bedroom, living room in one, the area is usually ≤ 8 square meters, and the monthly rent is 3000-5000.
The space is only 8 square meters, and a person must complete all activities such as eating, sleeping, resting, and washing in this small space of 8 square meters.
What about the environment? Look at the picture to speak:
Filming the movie "A Thought of Ignorance" in the cutting room, Zeng Zhiwei once said:
"How open-minded people will slowly be unable to stand it, (in the play) I have been very lucky, the room has a window, many rooms do not even have a window." 」
There are also larger "suites", about 11.15 square meters, with a monthly rent of 7500 yuan!
However, those who can afford to cut houses are happy, and there are many people who can't even afford to cut houses.
They can only live in the coffin room with a rent of 1600 to 3200 yuan / month.
Coffin Room:
It is in the room, in the shape of a "well" split up and down, the entire house price space is divided into many "small rooms", the space is only 1.5 square meters, can only put a bed, taller people lie in it and can't even stretch their legs straight.
But in such a "room", there are about 200,000 Hong Kong people living. People who live here will "jokingly" say, "I have erected four coffin boards before I am dead." ”
In addition to the coffin room, there is also a cage house with a worse living environment, as the name suggests, it is a cage-like house.
A 70 square meter house, which has about 200 people living in it, however, such a cage house, the rent is also 2500 yuan / month.
<h1>Ordinary life is difficult to counterattack</h1>
Every shot in the film is very realistic, reflecting a kind of helplessness to survive, and will also be unable to afford to live in a house, not enough to eat, no choice, no counterattack of the low-level life, interpreted to the fullest.
Just like the saying: Life is up and down, falling and falling, all the way down.
Film emperor Aaron Kwok, playing a down-and-out financial talent Abo. Due to an operational error, he fell from heaven to hell.
After eating 8 years of labor reform, Abo was completely in decline, and had nothing but the debts around him.
However, these debts were borne by his sister alone, who paid off the debts for 8 years, and he did not face home to face his sister and mother, but could only wander away with guilt and try not to starve himself to death.
In Hong Kong, a place full of talents, Abo, a middle-aged uncle with a criminal background, could not find a fixed job at all, and could only do some scattered coolies to maintain his livelihood, but he was only able to eat enough, and he could not afford to rent a place at all, and could only mix with Mai Lu.
But he has always been eager to help everyone around him, and in the Mai Lu Alliance, he is the master of everyone's eyes, and he does everything he can for everyone.
A group of strangers at the bottom of society, because of the compulsion of life, with the help of McDonald's to shield the wind and rain, know each other, care for each other, help each other, in each other's coldest darkness, paddling matches and hugging each other for warmth.
The three great misfortunes of life are: the continuous extreme poverty; the extreme melancholy that dashes hope; and the extreme ignorance that emptys the soul. —Ayy Markham
A single mother married to Hong Kong in the mainland, her husband, for some reason has died, the mother-in-law thinks that she killed her son, so she angrily threw her and her five-year-old daughter out of the house.
A foreigner, without a Hong Kong hukou or residence permit, has no foothold in Hong Kong, where land is scarce, not to mention that in order to retaliate, her mother-in-law makes her keep paying off her gambling debts.
The single mother in the play, she can't even afford to live in the worst cage house, and can only take her daughter to McDonald's.
During the day, when her daughter goes to school, she will go to part-time work, sweeping the floor, washing dishes, massage, working several jobs a day, and after work, she also goes to pick up rags or set up stalls to wash cars, and she can earn a piece of money, however, so desperate work, mother and daughter do not have a meal.
Five-year-old Yuanyuan, saw a team on the street to deliver free lunch to the elderly, she also went to the old man behind the queue to receive the lunch box, when she came to her, the staff asked her if she was helping her family to collect, she did not speak, the staff asked her if she had an old man's card, she asked: Do you want to eat when you are old?
The staff was asked by her and was speechless for a moment.
Unable to receive food, she had to go into the house to find her mother, who happened to be having sex with the creditor, and she sat very sensibly on the side.
After a while, the creditor who took the money left angrily, leaving behind half a plate of food left, and he walked over and said: Mom, I am hungry!
Before her mother could reply, she picked up her chopsticks and ate the half plate of leftover rice that others had eaten.
Seeing this paragraph, I couldn't help it, crying in the theater, it was too difficult for mother and daughter.
<h1>There is no way to survive, only to survive</h1>
I think of the Guangzhou Railway Station, where there are many vagrants, they are like the Mai Lu people in the film, some are homeless, some do not want to return home, and some foreigners come to Guangzhou and are deceived, they all have their own reasons for wandering.
Once waiting for a train at the train station, just ordered a takeaway at the meal point, and when I finished eating and went to throw away the garbage, a middle-aged man came to me and asked me for the leftover food on my hand, although he was a little dirty, but very polite, but it also scared me.
Feeling very rude and embarrassed to give leftovers to others, I said: This is not good, I have eaten, or I will order you a new one.
He said: No, just eat the rest!
I bought him twenty yuan for food, and he also resolutely refused, saying that he would not be rewarded. Finally, he took the lunch box in my hand, and the news was in the middle of everyone, leaving me alone and overwhelmed.
I am a happy person, never hungry, but I can also experience the taste of no rice belly, very helpless, and powerless.
Just like the Mai Lu people in the film, they exert all their energy to survive, there is no three meals and one night, not only abandoned by the era of rapid development, but even the capital of the body will be squandered in an instant.
In the end, the single mother died suddenly from overwork, just the night after paying off the debt.
Abo, who was also toiling and running, died quietly because of lung cancer on a bus that did not know where to go.
Before dying, he exhausted all his strength to get on the bus to see his mother for the last time, but finally failed. This detail is a bit exaggerated, but the meaning is infinite.
<h1>The essence of life is that there are still many difficulties after a thousand sadnesses! </h1>
"Mai Lu Ren" is a movie about how money crushes the lives of people at the bottom, and to be precise, money is the protagonist of this film.
The film is too real, it is really frightening, it is like a magnifying glass, putting all the real situations that we ignore and dare not face on the big screen.
It reflects the state of life at the lowest level of society, who are impoverished and tortured by invisible opponents to "live".
In the past, I always thought that a sound modern person with hands and feet, who went wandering, ate and slept outside, was hungry, could not be clothed, had nowhere to sleep, because as long as he was willing to work, although he could not be rich and expensive, he could also guarantee three meals and one night.
But this film refreshed my cognition, in fact, everyone has his difficulties, some people, not to make a living, but to survive, especially in Hong Kong, a place where land is scarce.
Unlike the tramps, the Mai lu people have a certain side and dignity.
They may be homeless, or they may not want to return home, sit quietly, or sleep on their stomachs at the table. They abide by the order of the nightclub, generally enter the store after midnight, leave after dawn in the morning, and try not to affect the business of the storefront.
They also have their own jobs, sometimes buying a burger or coffee, and gently helping the clerk clean up the table to slightly earn some good feelings for themselves.
Most of them are not people who do not work hard, but for many reasons they are always stretched and unable to make ends meet. Perhaps, this is the most real society.
Life has its own ups and downs, and everyone should learn to endure their own share of sadness in life.
(I am thinking, welcome to pay attention ~)