(the original text was published on the WeChat public account "Wild Ronin", pushed on October 27, 2015. The account focuses on high-quality originals)
Editor's note: "The Fool in Dangerous Building" is a young Russian director born in the 1980s Yuri · Bykov's third feature-length feature film, the original Russian titled "Дурак" (pronounced: Dulak; meaning idiot, fool). Director Yuri Bekov's other two feature films are "Alive" (also known as "Surviving Now") and "Police Shady".
Jima is the leader of a public housing repair team in a city in Russia. In the words of the Chinese Dynasty, he is a typical "five good youth". What are the five good youth, to popularize it, is "good study, good thinking, good work, good discipline, good style". Why do you say that? Because Jima is very motivated, he is not only dedicated to his job, but also uses his spare time to take the architect qualification certificate (yes, just like we take the CPA, CFA, lawyer qualification certificate, etc.), and often learns in the middle of the night. When everyone was moving public things to the house, he still insisted on a bright moon and a breeze. Even though he was so poor that he couldn’t eat enough food every day, he was still me, and he was often obliged to repair the benches in the compound. In short, although he is not a cadre above the division level, he absolutely meets the requirements of the eight regulations and meets the advanced and typical standard of "three strictness and three realities". Such an advanced young man with firm ideals and beliefs encountered all kinds of unexpected things when trying to save the lives of more than 800 people in a building.
Here's the thing. One day, Jima went to repair the hot water pipe of a public dormitory building in Community A, and found a large crack running from the roof to the foundation. . Ji Ma was so shocked that his mouth couldn't close. Why didn't he fix such a serious problem? When I asked my colleagues, I found out that this building has been overhauled several times, but every time a huge amount of money has been allocated, it is only to renovate the facade beautifully. Most of the other funds have gone into the public housing responsible for the maintenance. In the hands of the bureau chief and others.
Although Jima is not responsible for the maintenance of the building structure and the main body, he is still in the examination for the architect's qualification certificate. Considering the tilt angle of the building, he has come to a conclusion: this building may collapse at any time, or in theory, this building may collapse at any time. The building was already collapsing, and at most it was only a night away from the last "crash".
So, the humble Jima decided to save the people living in this dormitory building. To this end, he found his boss and his boss's boss successively until he overcame all difficulties and came to Dongfanghong Hotel late at night. Find the lady mayor who is celebrating her birthday - Nina.
When Ji Ma came to the banquet hall, a guest was delivering a birthday speech. He praised the contribution of Mayor Nina and called on everyone to call Nina mother, so everyone gathered around Nina Gao. Shouting: Mum-mum, Mum-mum... Applause, cheers, warm and nostalgic music sounded, what a happy and peaceful scene.
Seizing an opportunity, Jima went to Mayor Nina to report the situation of the "dangerous building", and strongly suggested that the mayor should hold a meeting of the general bureau. The fire brigade, police station, and rescue team all need it, and an action plan needs to be formulated. Evacuate the residents, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable.
The mayor's mother seemed to attach great importance to the situation reported by Jima, and quickly called the officials to a meeting, but the meeting was extremely difficult. Instead of thinking about how to solve the problem, several directors began to criticize each other, shirk responsibility, and expose each other's old secrets. During the period, Jima's top leader, the director of public housing and Jima went to the scene to check the situation, and finally confirmed that the building was really about to collapse. So I went back to the hotel for a meeting. The mayor's mother and a group of bureau chiefs once again carried out a series of prevarication, attack and abuse. In the end, the mayor's mother decided that the top priority was to evacuate the 820 people living in the building. Of course, the premise is that there must be temporary housing. . So the mayor's mother took the guest who called him "Mom" in her birthday speech and drove to a real estate agent, asking him to help provide temporary housing, but was rejected. In pain and loss, the mayor's mother had a meaningful dialogue with her escort (also a businessman).
The businessman said: You cannot evacuate people from the building.
Nina was angry and said: What about the common people, they are real people, you monster.
Unexpectedly, the businessman actually said: Shut up, bastard, have you ever managed the common people before? You're only in charge when 800 people are going to die together. ...when you make money from every item of your budget, do you think about it? ...
Yes, you heard that right, the businessman who just called the mayor's mother is now calling the mayor's mother a "bitch". Why? You only need to know that the mayor's mother was only a clerk before, and it's not surprising that many waiters at the Dongfanghong Hotel have been promoted to various bureau chiefs, mayors, etc.
But the mayor's mother still has objections, feeling that her humanity has not been wiped out, and said: They are all living!
The businessman said: Who, scum, garbage, they should be damned!
Maybe the businessman is not entirely wrong, because one out of every two people in that building has been detained and has a criminal record. The normal life in the building is gambling, drug addiction, alcoholism, wife beating and all kinds of prostitution
... The mayor of Nina finally revealed her true nature, she decided to give up the more than 800 losers in the dangerous building, killed the two chiefs of the housing bureau and the fire department at the same time, including Jima, and then put all the responsibility on him.
But Jima finally escaped, and decided to leave the city forever with his wife and children overnight. In the borrowed car, on the way to escape, Jima and his wife quarreled. The wife complained that Jima was nosy and looking for trouble, no matter what. Jima argued that he had proved that the house would collapse, and believed that the government might be evacuating the residents of the dangerous building.
However, when Ji Ma drove past the "Dangerous Building", it was still quiet there. Jima stopped the car and stared in shock at this building that was "theoretically" collapsing at any time. After all, he couldn't leave the more than 800 lives behind, even if the people living there were the dregs of the city and the rubbish of society. He still hopes to use his own strength to evacuate all the residents. However, the final ending of the movie is still left to the readers to see for themselves!
Such a movie that vividly shows the darkness of society, the corrupt government, the malfeasance of officials, and the distortion of human nature, actually made by a Russian director born in the 1980s, really makes us feel ashamed.
Although "Fool in Dangerous Building" itself is full of fables, from the perspective of viewing experience, it cannot bring us the happy ending of Chinese fables. This film, which is similar to the documentary method, shows a very intuitive Director Yuri Bykov, a profound reflection on the post-Soviet era and Russia's transition period.
But for this kind of invaluable reflection, stupid people will only use it as an argument to prove a country's "stupidity", but they cannot see the impetus that such reflection provides for a country's civilization and rise. This reminds me of the scene when I watched McDonnell's movie "Black Gold" more than ten years ago. At that time, we would think that Taiwan's society is extremely dark, and that kind of political ecology cannot make a society tend to be good. However, the truth is On the contrary, a society that dares to malign itself is itself a pillar of goodness.
What is certain is that we will not be able to make such outstanding films as "Fool in Dangerous Building" for a long time to come. Under normal circumstances, we are always living in the cruelty of reality, but we keep imagining the peaceful atmosphere of the symposium on literature and art. How can bad guys escape sanctions? How can the rescued harm the rescuer?
In some truly corrupt societies, art is not an expression but a paper. Obviously, although Russia still lives in the shadow of the strongman Putin, with a "foolish man" like Yuri Bekov, Russia, a former civilization "Dangerous Building" may really revive my humanistic glory, and I am full of expectations for this.
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