Life can't wait, but dreams can have.
From the title of the film, "Fallen Man" makes it easy to think of the ancient poem "The Same Fallen Man at the End of the World", which is from the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's long Lefu poem "Pipa Line", which tells the story of "last year's resignation of emperor Jing" and the pipa girl who "was originally a beijing woman" "met and why did they ever know each other".
As the tragic color implied in the title of the film, this is the story of a person who has fallen to the bottom of Hong Kong, a middle-aged man Chang Rong who is paralyzed by an accidental injury and has lost his wife, he believes that there is nothing to look forward to in life, his existence has become meaningless; the young Filipino maid is troubled by a failed marriage, and under the influence of her original family, she has to give up her dream of becoming a photographer.
Two unrelated people met in the warm and dry summer, the four seasons changed, the two people from the initial master-servant relationship also gradually produced different emotions, based on mutual respect and understanding of the complex feelings make the two become each other's bondage, but compared to companionship, the protagonist finally chose to be perfect, this ending intensified the tragic color of the film, the master gave the maid the opportunity to realize her dreams, the maid became "one percent", but how the master lived the second half of his life is no answer, This ending also makes people think about the other side of Hong Kong society.
The picture of Hong Kong society shown in the film is completely different from the labels that ordinary people have labeled the city of Hong Kong, such as "Pearl of the Orient" and "Dynamic Capital", but instead of this, it can be seen that the Hong Kong society framed by the camera is crowded and chaotic.
The locations of the characters in the film are concentrated in noisy wet markets and "low-end" gathering places, such as small street restaurants, affordable clothing stores and small bars, which are incompatible with the magic city, and these scenes appear in the film are not a small part of Hong Kong society but occupy a large part of Hong Kong society, and these places have become important places for the entertainment of Hong Kong's low-level people.
Specific to the home of the film's characters, it is also small and dark, and the window cannot see the vast sky at a glance, but a square frame completely framed sky, and there are many pictures of Changrong looking up at the sky in the film, but "seeing the sky is not the sky".
From the most intuitive composition, the picture is the standard central composition method, the sky is in the center of the picture but does not occupy the entire picture, if the picture is simply imagined as a target, then the sky is the middle of the link.
Through this way of composition, on the one hand, the film shows the external dilemma faced by the characters, that is, they cannot meet their most basic survival needs without the intervention of others, on the other hand, they also show the inner world of the characters, unable to see the endless sky, and without any expectations for the future and thinking about the meaning of their own existence.
From another point of view, the film provides a window to see the real Hong Kong, the plight of the film's characters is caused by the problems existing in Hong Kong society, the film does not focus on this point, but it is not difficult to observe the creator's thinking on this issue from the film.
In the film, the protagonist Chang Rong is paralyzed due to an accident and completely loses the ability to take care of himself, but his subsidy cost can only barely maintain his own life, and there is no excessive subsidy to cope with other aspects of the expenses, such as the life, education, medical and other expenses of other family members, the result of the separation of wives and children is undoubtedly the biggest torture, how to care for special groups of people in society This is a problem, because there is no perfect measure or good model in social security, of course, this problem is not unique to Hong Kong.
In addition, the discrimination chain that prevails in society does not give the public a correct guide, so the tragedy of the film characters is not the tragedy of one person, it is the tragedy of a group of people, there are many foreigners working in Hong Kong, the other protagonist of the film Evelyn is a Filipino maid, in Hong Kong, the Filipino maid is a large group, this group generally suffers from social injustice, there are four Filipino maids in the film, they hug each other for warmth, comfort and support each other.
But in the eyes of Hong Kong people, they are insignificant existence and even disgusting, just as a line in the film "The Filipino maids on the streets on the weekend are extremely annoying" tells their situation in the social environment, and the local residents have an innate sense of superiority to mock them, coupled with the difference in language, which exacerbates this situation, and the film reflects the prejudice of the whole society against this group through Evelyn's character activities.
In fact, it is not the so-called elite or middle class that is unfairly treated to this group, but the small people who belong to the bottom of society. Evelyn is a maid who is questioned not by her ability to work but by her status when looking for a job; from the outset she is defined as a vulnerable of the disadvantaged, buying vegetables in the wet market, being deceived and ridiculed by the lady of the house; meeting Chang Rong's family to visit him, not being able to eat at the table and having to go to the kitchen; these details inadvertently deepen the understanding of the problem of the ills of identity solidification.
So whether it is Changrong or Evelyn, they are "fallen people" who have not been taken care of, and because of this, the encounter between the two is particularly valuable, which is a warm story of the bottom people healing each other, Evelyn pursues her dreams again, and Changrong takes helping Evelyn realize her dreams as a major driving force in her life, and there is absolute trust between the two.
There is a portrayal in the film that is particularly in place, when Evelyn sold the camera to solve family problems, Changrong felt angry, but the reason for the anger was that Evelyn gave up his dream instead of hiding the fact of selling the camera, Changrong did not ask, Evelyn did not explain, the trust in the depths of the two was quite touching, the camera was lost and regained is an important turning point for the further deepening of the two people's feelings, which is also a stepping stone for Evelyn to realize his dream.
After this turning point, the relationship between the two changes from the initial mutual help and mutual help master-servant relationship to a more complex emotion close to love, the film uses a set of freehand pictures to express the emotional changes in the characters' hearts, after Evelyn fell to Changrong for help, in Changrong's imagination he quickly stepped out of bed and picked up Evelyn, in fact he can only call for help.
This set of imaginative pictures is a portrayal of Chang Rong's heart, but also shows that he is not simply an employer's feelings for the servant, based on this understanding can also explain the final tragic ending, after all, Chang Rong prefers Evelyn to go further.
The film "Fallen Man" uses warm and delicate brushstrokes to write about the bottom of society, using the perspective of two social individuals to give the audience a glimpse of the real Hong Kong society, and the film also seems to convey a value concept, when society can not meet the reasonable survival needs of individuals, the only thing that can be done is to rely on each other, whether you are a "Beijing woman" or "Ci DiJing".