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"Manslaughter Hidden from Heaven": When the victim killed "Sun Xiaoguo" by mistake
01
On February 20, 2020, in accordance with the execution order issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court of Yunnan Province executed the criminal Sun Xiaoguo. This news quickly occupied the hot list of major social platforms, and everyone applauded, lamenting that the legal network was sloppy and not missed and this overdue justice.
Sun Xiaoguo, a native of Kunming, Yunnan, was born in 1977. His mother was a former police officer of the Kunming Public Security Bureau. His stepfather served as the deputy director of the Wuhua Branch of the Kunming Public Security Bureau, and he served as the director of the Urban Management Bureau until his retirement.
In December 1995, Sun Xiaoguo was sentenced to three years in prison for rape. After the verdict came into effect, her parents helped Sun Xiaoguo to seek medical parole illegally by falsifying medical records, resulting in her not being taken into custody for execution.
During the period of illegal medical parole, Sun Xiaoguo committed rape, forced insult to women, intentional injury, and provoking trouble from April to November 1997.
In February 1998, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court convicted Sun Xiaoguo for several crimes and decided to execute the death penalty and deprive him of his political rights for life.
After the second instance, the Yunnan Higher People's Court commuted the sentence in March 1999 and sentenced Sun Xiaoguo to death with a two-year reprieve and deprivation of political rights for life. After the verdict came into effect, a retrial judgment was made in September 2007, and Sun Xiaoguo was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2010, Sun Xiaoguo applied for a national patent and was released from prison, working outside prison in the name of "Li Linchen".
Since August 2011, Sun Xiaoguo has successively registered and operated a number of companies, nightclubs, bars and clubs under Li Linchen and his real name Sun Xiaoguo, becoming a party of underworld forces.
On December 23, 2019, the Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court publicly sentenced Sun Xiaoguo in 1997 for the crime of rape, forcibly insulting women, intentional harm, and the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. The final verdict of twenty-five years in prison for other crimes was combined, and Sun Xiaoguo was sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property.
On February 20, 2020, Sun Xiaoguo was executed.
Since 1995, for 24 years, Sun Xiaoguo, with the help of his mother and stepfather, continued to commit crimes and escaped legal punishment many times. When power is above the law, what will the world look like? The Sun Xiaoguo case is the best answer. Even if the law initially delivers a just verdict, power changes it little by little, eventually fading out of sight as time wears off, quietly letting the perpetrator escape.
Sun Xiaoguo's mother used her power to let Sun Xiaoguo go free for more than 20 years. And whether the justice that came late more than 20 years later is still justice for the victims, no one can answer for the victims. We have no way of knowing how many "Sun Xiaoguo" are still at large.
02
The "Manslaughter Hiding the Sky" introduced in this issue happened in the context of the "Sun Xiaoguo case". When the victim accidentally killed "Sun Xiaoguo" who was sheltered by the umbrella of power, how did the victim's father learn from the movie? anti-investigation tactics and power to confront and protect their families.
The story takes place in India. The protagonist, Vijay, is the owner of an Internet cable company. He dropped out of the fourth grade of primary school. He married a beautiful wife and has two daughters. He likes watching movies and often learns from movies. s right. This also became the key for him to turn the clues that might reveal the truth into evidence in his favor step by step by recalling the plots in the film.
The eldest daughter, Anjiu, was videotaped bathing by the police inspector general's son, Sam, during a school-organized camp and threatened to upload the video if he didn't do what he said. An Jiu told his mother about this, and during the two arguing with Sam about grabbing the phone, An Jiu accidentally killed Sam by mistake.
The movie starts to climax from here. Vijay learned what happened when he returned home, and calmly dealt with it all by imitating the plot of the movie. Then Vijay faked the family's two-day itinerary in the case of No. 2 and No. 3, and let him tell the story. Everyone unconsciously gave perjury for him, and finally used public opinion to bring down the Prosecutor General's family.
Here we have to emphasize that the movie has a certain teaching function. Vijay reproduces the techniques in the movie into real life, combines the real events with the virtual timeline, and edits the montage in everyone's memory. The effect of making all the clues and evidence in Vijay's favor, thus concealing the truth.
Unlike the active crime plots in other movies, Vijay did all this just to protect his family. While the audience praised Vijay's high IQ, he also felt fatherly love and responsibility as a father.
In addition, Vijay also learned legal knowledge from the plot of the movie, has a sense of justice higher than others, and dared to resist the oppression of power, which shaped his integrity. People can't help but feel that movies can bring people more than entertainment. Many times we have learned a lot from movies subtly, just as the film master Bergman said: " There is no art form that can be like movies. Go beyond ordinary feelings and reach directly into our emotions and into our souls. ”
03
When I first watched the film, I felt that Vijay was covering up his family, but it made sense to think about the environment he was in. In the film, the people at the bottom in India generally have weak legal awareness, and there are also many police officers who use their powers to greed and pay their bills. The scoundrels of protection money, and the chief prosecutor to extort confessions in order to solve the case, these images that should represent social justice are not justice itself in people's minds. When power takes precedence over the law, the law no longer protects the victim.
Therefore, the film is about the protagonist's amazing and perfect anti-detection tactics on the surface, but the details of confrontation with power are hidden everywhere.
detail 1
At the beginning, Vijay had several conflicts with the police Gaotu. Although he dropped out of school in the fourth grade of elementary school, Vijay, who has been watching movies for a long time, has a much higher legal awareness than others. He introduced a lawyer to an old couple to sue the police Gaotu. Germany illegally detained their sons, scolded Gotude for reneging on debts as "black bugs can only survive on other people's blood", and helped contractors fight against the police, which made Gotude hold a grudge against Vijay, while the others were just With a calm attitude, he dared to be angry but did not dare to speak.
As the restaurant owner said: "Gotud is a policeman, he has the power, don't mess with him." People see the police as a power, not Vijay's "why should we be afraid of the police, they should We serve."
detail 2
An Jiu, the eldest daughter who participated in the camping, came back and said that the son of the police inspector, Sam, often used his mobile phone to film the girl. The mother Nandini asked if he had stopped him. . Here the lawyer's daughter symbolizes the law. When rights are violated, only the lawyer's daughter will speak out to stop the attorney general's son. This is another form of confrontation between law and power. Sadly, there are not many people with legal awareness and those who dare to fight against power, which further reflects the weak legal awareness of ordinary people.
In addition, it is an ironic coincidence that St Thomas' school, which his wife is optimistic about requiring high tuition fees, is Sam's school.
detail 3
At the end of the film, Vijay asked his brother-in-law to inform reporters about the incident, and told everyone that Gottude beat his young daughter, arousing public anger, and eventually the chief prosecutor was dismissed. Vijay chose to use the power of public opinion to oppose power, which to a certain extent also reflects the reality: when power is above the law, the only way out for vulnerable groups is to choose to use public opinion to expand their influence, and to obtain fair justice under the supervision of the whole society. result.
This is a helpless move, and it is also a risk. If the power is large enough to reverse public opinion, what form will justice take?
04
This Indian film released in 2015 was remade in China as "Manslaughter" in 2019. "Manslaughter" is basically the same as the plot of this film, but the specific details are slightly different, it is closer to our life, and it also gives a different ending.
The father in "Manslaughter" is a middle-class man who owns an internet cable company. In contrast, his living conditions are better and he has a certain reputation in the local area; while the father in "Manslaughter" lives in the bottom society of Thailand, although he has a house But it is also near the cemetery; in addition, the second generation of officials in "Manslaughter" raped the eldest daughter, which made the conflict between the two parties more intense. The scratches and other details also suggest that the second generation of Guan did not die at that time, but died of suffocation, and manslaughter turned into murder.
The endings of the two movies are also diametrically opposite. The father in "Manslaughter" chose to keep this secret forever, while the father in "Manslaughter" finally surrendered to protect his wife and daughter, and disclosed the burial location. The wife and daughter also took the initiative to surrender. , let the law return to its normal track.
At the end of "Manslaughter Hidden from Heaven", Vijay said to the attorney general and his wife: "We are also sorry, I hope I am as kind as you, but I am just a fourth-grade dropout. I have a wife, I have two daughters, That's my whole world. I never asked for anything else."
"We have caused you pain and I want to say sorry countless times, I do it in my heart, but we can't do anything else. My family is so important to me, I can do anything for them, I can do whatever it takes. "
"I couldn't tell right from wrong at that moment, and we're sorry."
05
As a remake, "Manslaughter" and "Manslaughter Concealing the Sky" were highly praised, and the box office exceeded 400 million in 8 days of release. Affected by the epidemic, as one of the movies released at the end of 2019, "Manslaughter" has also become the box office champion in recent days.
Sun Xiaoguo, who came back to people's sight a few days ago, is like Sam in "The Story of Manslaughter". Their mothers are both government officials. When faced with their son's fault, one abused his power to let him escape the guilt, and the other punished him. He kept silent about his mistakes, and even used lynching to extract a confession in order to know his son's whereabouts. How powerful is power?
This also constantly reminds us that justice needs to be maintained. In places beyond our sight, under the protection of power, we don't know how many "Sun Xiaoguo cases" are still hidden, and how many victims have not waited for justice to come. As long as power can still affect justice, there will still be the next "Sun Xiaoguo".
Although at the end of "Manslaughter, Hidden Heaven", Vijay, the father, managed to protect his family, everyone chanted and cheered, and even in the tense plot, there were cheerful Indian songs as the soundtrack, I still think it is a movie tragedy.
Sadness for Sam under the protection of power; sadness for Anju, who was invaded by privacy; sadness for the Vijay family who couldn't take this road; sadness for ordinary people in the film who are oppressed by power, and the law is only one thing. Void; sadness in justice never appeared.
How would the plot develop without this manslaughter; what would be the ending if Vijay couldn't eliminate all the evidence perfectly. Hope the tragedy never repeats itself.
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