
Text: Savage Five
Edit: tudou
Image: Network
Friday Speech: Hello everyone, today we are going to talk about a heavy and serious topic - intentional homicide. It's not about movies, it's about reality.
Recently, there have been frequent cases of intentional homicide in China, from Shanghai to Fujian, from Hebei to Jiangsu, from Jilin to Anhui... If you are good at following such cases, it is not difficult to find that this kind of thing is not accidental, but has been common for many years. If you look closely enough, it is difficult to divide the perpetrators of these cases into a specific social group or class, from intellectuals to migrant workers, from unemployed vagrants to ordinary company employees, from minors to middle-aged and elderly people. In other words, these killings have nothing to do with the perpetrator's level of education, location, or social identity. This is a whole social phenomenon that makes people think about it very carefully.
Intentional homicide is not the same as deliberate murder, the latter is mostly to escape legal punishment, is a strong desire to survive, and the former is not - we all know that the death penalty in China is a normalized punishment, "killing to pay for life" for thousands of years is also a generally recognized punishment in China, which is impossible for those who intentionally kill people not to know. Therefore, whether people are aware of this: they deprive others of their lives at the same time, but also deprive themselves of their own lives, and their behavior is, to some extent, tantamount to "suicide"!
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Speaking of suicide, I am reminded of the words of the French writer Camus in his "absurd" discourse, when he said: "There is only one serious problem, and that is suicide." He added, "I see many people dying because they don't think life is worth living." I've also seen others commit suicide paradoxically for the sake of thoughts or fantasies that are supposed to keep him alive... From this I conclude that the meaning of life is the most pressing issue. ”
Admittedly, I think that what Camus is referring to here as "life" is the environment and society in which a person depends. Further, if a person's behavior is suicidal, then he has doubts about the environment and society in which he lives, and then doubts the meaning of life.
Well, now that we're talking about intentional homicide, we can't avoid the question of "environment and society"! In my opinion, the environment here is human nature, and society is the system. Note that this system should be more generalized, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the system is. These two things are the external causes of a person's suicide, his killing, and at the same time the other two parties to the tragedy of intentional homicide. In other words, if we only talk about one of the three and ignore the other two when facing a social intentional homicide case, it is bound to be one-sided and irrational, and it is bound to be ineffective, meaningless, or even counterproductive to resolving social contradictions and avoiding tragedies.
So what is the attitude of our public opinion media in the face of such cases at present? Obviously, most people are judged on the basis of a moral view of good or bad right and wrong. And we need to know that moral judgment is not the same as legal judgment (it is emotional), legal judgment is never the same as absolute justice (it is dead), and no healthy and sound society will try to restrain sin in a single way. On the contrary, there will be more and more flaws and contradictions in society.
Social flaws and contradictions are thorny problems for any country, and they are also difficult to solve. So new questions arise – what should we do in the face of such intractable problems, and how can we get involved and do something positive about it so that the tragedy does not happen again?
"Friday Literature and Art" does not dare to strategize indiscriminately, but I believe that the concept of recognizing the advantages and disadvantages of society as the result of the joint action of people, the environment, and the system is the big premise for solving problems and the big premise for making our thinking tend to be rational and just. After all, our purpose is not pure catharsis, but to avoid tragedy from happening again, isn't it?!
The "intentional homicide cases" involved in the following recommended ten films mostly occur under the democratic system, which shows that their system has many flaws, and second, it shows that they cannot solve the contradiction by one law and regulation alone, and the seriousness of the problem has reached the point where the whole society, including the media, scholars, artists and even the public, has to work together.
"Friday Literature and Art" on the film ——
1. "All Metal Shell" (1987)
Formerly known as Full Metal Jacket
Country: United States
Director: Stanley Kubrick
"Recommendation" An American soldier who was about to set foot on the battlefield in Vietnam, before he could finish his training in the barracks, shot the instructor and then swallowed the bullet to commit suicide...
★ Related: A brief look at Kubrick's eight stunning films
2. "Female Match Factory Worker" (1990)
Former name: Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö
Country: Finland
Director: Aki Korismachi
"Recommendation" The lonely and introverted female match factory worker, after repeated deception and injury, chose to kill...
★ Related: 10 films depicting the "underclass"
3. "Eel" (1997)
Original name: Eel
Nation: Japan
Director: Masahira Imamura
"Recommendation" An ordinary office man, after discovering his wife's adultery, resolutely stabbed him to death on the bed, and then went to the police station to turn himself in.
★ Related: Why these movies explore the "death penalty"...
4. The Elephant (2003)
Former name: Elephant
Director: Gus Van Sant
Two high school students, armed with firearms, entered the campus, shot their classmates and teachers one by one, and finally blew themselves up... This film is based on real time and is thought-provoking.
★ Related: Revelations: 10 Movies About Juvenile Delinquency
5. What Happened to Kevin (2001)
原名:We Need to Talk About Kevin
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Lynn Ramsey
"Recommended Words" is another incident of violence in american schools, and another juvenile crime... The difference is that the director traces the crime back to the time their parents met and when they were pregnant. Equally thought-provoking.
★ Related: Do you want children? Let's understand this "What Happened to Kevin" first!
6. "Red Fury Tide" (2008)
Former name: Red
Director: Razi Mackay (et al.)
"Recommendation" A veteran single old man and his dog depend on each other for their lives, until their dog is brutally killed by several children... After seeking all legal and moral means without success, but being bitten back by the deceitful, the old man embarked on the unavoidable road of killing.
★ Related: "Recommended" reflects on revenge and violence from 10 films
7. The Third Degree Suspect (2017)
Original name: Third murder
Director: It's Kore-eda
"Recommendation" What is the psychology of a person who can kill someone so calmly, turn himself in, and fully cooperate with the police and prosecutors in the investigation? What kind of social hidden dangers are hidden behind this behavior? The film uses a murder case to delve into the complex social behavior of criminal homicide and even the death penalty.
8. "Kennel Horror" (2018)
Former name: Dogman
Country: Italy
Director: Matteo Galloni
"Recommendation" A small person; a coward; a father who is nestled in the pockets, and finally embarks on the road to killing, what really happened in between...
★ Related: The Relationship of kennel Horror characters to the structure of the film
9. "Burning" (2018)
Original name: 버닝
Country: South Korea
Director: Li Cangdong
The "recommended words" are more vague and bizarre than those who are forced to kill helplessly, and the motives of the killers at the end of this movie are even more vague and bizarre. Ah, how complex the human heart is, how much it needs us to study. In other words, how much those who choose to kill need "help."
★ Related: Interpreting the Korean movie "Burning" with "Detective Metaphysics"
10. "I'm Under Your Bed" (2019)
Original name: Under Your Bed
Director: Anrimari
"Recommendation" An otaku, a lewd man, a single man with a nest, finally kills a man who has never had a direct conflict with himself and has never communicated with him without scruples... Such a simple murder case, but behind it is such a complex psychological process.
★ Related: Look at sexual violence from the perspective of the movie "Under the Bed"
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