The Exile in Prison——Lin Lingdong's movie "Awakening the Dragon from Hell"
Wang Yi
I always like to watch prison movies, because life in prison is a special state of exile. In ancient times, there was a penalty called exile, and the name of the place that matched this penalty best, we would think of Siberia. Or it's called hair distribution. The one we impressed the most was Cangzhou in the Water Margin. But in fact, any punishment is exile in a sense, exiled outside the worldly life, exiled outside the relationship between people. Even if they don’t go to jail, they are just “control”, “residential surveillance” or “deprivation of political rights” alone. For those who have been punished, it is also a life in exile among the crowd. Because of a certain part of his personality, his license was revoked.
Exile is tantamount to forced exile, and is a kind of punishment for individuals by society. But if it is said that the sinning Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden by God, it was the first time that mankind suffered the punishment of exile, and Cain wandered on the ground, and it was the second time that he was assigned; all of Adam’s children and grandchildren were registered in prison. There are two possibilities for setting up a prison among themselves. One is to guard the prisoners among the prisoners, and the chief culprit among the sinners; the second, it may be a chance to go home.
But generally speaking, prison is an overcrowded place of exile, an overlap between exile and slave life. Regardless of why a person is disciplined, the state of exile in the discipline deserves our attention and sympathy in a normal society. Because love and punishment are the polarities of the power of law and justice. There is absolutely no justice when there is only punishment. In my opinion, this should become a common sense of law for every middle school student.
Hong Kong’s black prison films, apart from "Burning Island", are director Lin Lingdong’s "Prison Storm" series in the 1980s that can most touch the humanity in exile, although it still cannot be compared with the United States such as "Shockshen's Redemption" and "Green Miracle". Compared to the movie. To a Chinese intellectual, praising Hollywood films seems to lack style. But in terms of several film themes and genres, I have always believed that the artistic and social values achieved by Hollywood films are dwarfed by any European or other country's film, and must even be relied upon. Simply list a few, namely black prison films, politically critical films, and legal films surrounding revealing cases. These films are basically those that most countries in the world cannot make, dare not make, or don't want to make them. For example, our director, naturally, dare not even think about it. The free constitutional system of the United States can provide this type of film with the greatest freedom of expression and social tolerance, because the British film industry is not competitive, and this condition is almost unique in the world. Just as Europe can provide pornographic films with the greatest freedom of expression in the world. So even if Hollywood makes these films because of commercial considerations, they sacrifice most of the human value, just like Lin Lingdong's first film in Hollywood, "In Hell". But we still have to be content, because the whole world can no longer have better things to show you.
Regarding the metaphorical relationship between prison and exile, I would like to cite two pieces of evidence. One is the black prison escape film "Brother, Where Are You" by the Coen Brothers last year. The Coen brothers are famous for their alternatives. This movie describes the escape journey of three prisoners, but unexpectedly adapted it based on Homer's epic poem "Odyssey". Many people later complained that there was almost no trace of the original story in the movie. We can also hear this complaint from readers who have read Joyce’s novel Ulysses (Ulysses is another translation of the protagonist Odysseus in the Odyssey). The protagonist's wandering on Dublin Street is similar in spirit to Odysseus's ten-year exile. To borrow the saying of the ancients "great hidden in the city", it can be called "the great flow in the city". And prison life is also a kind of wandering in essence. Exile does not necessarily have to go to the horizon. Kong Ming said that "quietness can lead to far", so of course suffering can also lead to far.
Another thought of a friend of mine. He wrote the poem "The Fugitive in Dream" in prison, in which he said that "the careful escape plan was conspired from the mother's womb." This will beat us to death with a stick, and life is like a white horse, so it is not a painstaking exile. "A person has to go through many escapes/from home, from the road/from the eggshell or egg yolk of the social system/from the contaminated drinking water." From this perspective, the value of prison films is similar to that of "Eastern Time and Space". They are all "condensing the essence of life and telling the stories of the people themselves."
The protagonist of "Awakening the Dragon from Hell" is Shang Ge Yundun. The story has nothing to do with escape from prison, it is about how an ordinary person faces a desperate situation. How to win dignity in front of prison guards like slave owners. In the beginning, Winton’s struggle was to participate in a boxing match organized by prison guards, thinking that by seizing the championship and climbing to the highest position among the exiles, the exile of personality could be ended. But he finally discovered that this is not an issue between the exiles, but between the exiles and the shepherd holding a steel whip. He adjusted his direction and his method, never said a word and refused to play. Under cloud and rain-like fists, he became a muscular Gandhi. Lin Lingdong shot this scene very well on the field. From my point of view, it's okay to call this film "Ulysses". It may even be more appropriate to call the history after the third chapter of "Genesis" until the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, which is before the birth of Jesus, "Ulysses".
Because the history of mankind is almost divided into two paragraphs. The front is Greek mythology, and the back is Hebrew faith. You can't miss the beginning and miss the ending. You can't say that there are two flowers, one for each. Unless there is a cut sky above the earth. A pigeon flew over, the olive branch was useless, a visa must be applied first.
But there are no customs in the universe. The only customs is to guard the angels outside the Garden of Eden. In fact, we are all in jail, and the only proof of release is the blood on the cross. When "Shangge Yundun" discovered that human blood was useless, he stopped to die without punching.
2003-11-19
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