This American drama was recommended by Gao Xiaosong. Since watching "Xiao Shuo" and "Xiao Song Qi Tan", I have completely turned fans. It turns out that talent is real, and fate is also real. Talented people are blessed by fate, even if they look like Gao Xiaosong, they will look handsome.
"The night of" is translated into "The Run of Sin", which is a little far-fetched. It may be more appropriate if it is literally translated as "Night" or "That Night", but it is estimated that it is not as attractive as "Run of Sin", which is a high-level summary of the plot.
I have watched a lot of American dramas, and for me, they have basically completely replaced domestic dramas and TVB. Then I look back on the American dramas I have watched before, whether they are dramas or sitcoms, most of them describe the life of the American middle class and even the upper class. The occasional colored people are also middle-class people who have received the education of American elites. The life of the real flat-headed common people is rarely seen. Even the poor clanking working sisters in "Broken Sisters" cannot represent the lives of ordinary people. And "The Night of" accurately shows the real life of the bottom people in New York, USA. Unbuttoning those gorgeous first world coats, the people at the bottom of the United States, especially the immigrants, live vividly and deformed under the festivities of the metropolis. In the whole series, the tone is dim and the relationship between characters is tense and antagonistic, which adds a touch of gloom to the life at the bottom.
The first season, which aired this year, has only 8 episodes in total. Each episode is about 1 hour long. To understand this American drama, you need to understand at least the basic knowledge of two aspects. Basically it looks like this to me:
First, the American judicial system.
I remember when watching "Prison Break", I thought the weather in the play was so strange. These episodes are still wearing short sleeves, and after a few episodes, it is snowing again. After understanding some of the American judicial system, I realized that there is usually a long period of trial before sentencing, especially in cases of relatively serious crimes such as murder, which may last two or three years before and after. For example, Ma Jiajue's high efficiency from crime to sentence to execution in just a few dozen days is absolutely impossible.
Local prosecutors file lawsuits against suspects, and suspects can find lawyers at their own expense, or they can find free lawyers. Every lawyer is required to have a certain amount of free service time in the course of his practice. After the litigant and the defendant could not reach a plea agreement, the court agreed to file the case, and then select 12 people from the general public to form a small jury or 23 people to form a grand jury. During the trial, lawyers on both sides began to restore the case and list the doubtful points. During this process, everyone on the jury began to draw their own conclusions. After the trial, the jury will be isolated from the outside world for a certain period of time, discussing or voting to reach a final conclusion. "11 Angry Men" is about a jury overturning a nearly convicted case with its own reasoning. It can be said that the examination and approval is carried out by the jury, and the judge only plays the role of guiding and controlling the trial process of the case. In this process, lawyers can be said to be very powerful. They not only have to analyze the defenses of their own witnesses, but also analyze the situation of the opposing witnesses and the opposing lawyers, and even dig deeper into the details of the case than the police, so as to finally present their carefully arranged” case". It might even be said that sometimes the truth of the case doesn't matter. On the contrary, the composition of the jury, the performance of the defendant in court, and even the dress and the lawyer's blunt words, these are the core of the judicial game.
In the United States, the soundness of the judicial system is like a game. It looks like a cat-and-mouse game, but it is actually a circle. The police, prosecutors, lawyers, and judges are just indispensable players in this circle.
If it is in China, the case may be over when the evidence is completely collected, and the defendant has basically been convicted. However, in the huge judicial system of the United States, even if the evidence is conclusive, even if the case is clear, and there is no direct evidence that can connect the suspect with the case, then the entire accusation is invalid. The famous Simpson murder case is an example, even if everyone knew that it was him, even if the jury found it was him, the flaws in the key evidence ultimately directly affected the outcome of the trial. This is probably the principle of a never-before-seen case. It is better to miss one than to catch one more. From a positive point of view, the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongful convictions is avoided; however, from another point of view, it allows criminals to be free. It's hard to say what's right and what's wrong.
In the play, Naz's lawyer Stone was originally a low-level lawyer in the bottom society, and most of his clients were street gangsters. He lives in poverty, is on the verge of bankruptcy, lives alone, and has eczema all over his body. He always wears a long trench coat that is one size larger. Compared with the style of a lawyer with a neat suit, he is more like a street bum. But he has an unbelievable sense of responsibility in the face of seemingly innocent Naz and the homeless kitten. It was he who was keen to discover Naz's case and managed to obtain representation, although the process was more complicated, but the end result was that he could defend Naz wholeheartedly. He does not have extensive court experience, and is only good at guiding his clients to plead guilty to the law and receive a small commission. But he has the ability to see things and people's hearts. In addition to the police investigation, three suspects were unearthed, making this well-documented case confusing. He is obsessed with the desire for money, but insists on the warmth and integrity of his heart. He is sometimes black and white, wandering between the police and ordinary criminals, and uses his conscience to give Naz some comfort.
The other character on the show, Box, appears at first glance to be a seasoned, treacherous and cunning detective. Such a murder happened before he retired, and after the case, with his own experience, he wanted to lead Naz to plead guilty and fall under the law. During the trial of the case, he has officially retired, but his dedication to the case is still there. That is, he, after retiring, also unearthed the fourth suspect and the most likely suspect. Although the plot came to an abrupt end, whether the suspect was the real murderer or not, but because of this, Box's image has become three-dimensional and rich from the negative at the beginning.
In the whole play, Stone and Box have a heavier role, which basically supports the soul of the whole play. They wandered in the lower-level society as lawyers and police detectives, dealing with all kinds of criminals all day long, but they were always able to uphold their professional ethics, which made us see the light on their ordinary appearance.
The elegant district attorney also contributed a lot of wonderful performances.
Compared to lawyers, detectives and prosecutors, the client, Naz, is more of an outsider. He indulged in his own ideas, suddenly forced from the social environment to be confined to the small environment of the prison, and broke away from the racial system. Here comes the second aspect: the US immigration system.
For a long time, the general idea is that black Americans live in dire straits and are the most severely discriminated race. Then the truth is not so. The Pakistani immigrants and Chinese immigrants who appeared in the film are all among the remote corners of the prosperous city, closing themselves and forming a closed life circle. Their living conditions are not even as good as blacks. And Pakistani immigrants, and even immigrants from the Middle East in general, are easily discernible even in crowds due to their strong facial features and clothing features. After 9/11, in the entire American society, all Muslims were hostile and hostile, and this sentiment was far worse than the discrimination suffered by blacks. The protagonist of the film, Naz, is also a victim of this social environment.
On the one hand, the social environment has put him under pressure far beyond what he can bear. Since high school, he has been constantly accepting discrimination from his classmates and society, including black people; The principle of steadfast maintenance of his beliefs, living in a circle composed of Muslims, did not give a growing child enough care and guidance. As a university student, Naz lives in a bustling city, but he has never participated in a patry. At the age of 23, he only has a one-time experience. Not only are they closed to themselves, but the whole society is actually closed to them. This led to the fact that although they lived in the United States for many years, Naz was born American, but he always lived as a marginal person in this familiar and unfamiliar land. They feel like they are Americans, and Americans are digging into their blood. The United States, known as the melting pot, still has many problems with the integration of different races. Otherwise, there will be no racial gatherings in Chinatown, Koreatown, Japantown, etc.
There are several scenes where Muslims live and work. There's Naz's home, the underground mall where Mom works, and the small restaurant where Dad negotiates with people, all of which are completely out of tune with the America in other American TV shows, completely different worlds. Then it is this kind of conflict and confrontation, which has formed a strange pattern in American cities. The barren Chinatown is full of the lowest-level Chinese immigrants. This reminds me of the "Gua Sha" a few years ago, which, to put it bluntly, is also a manifestation of racial and cultural conflicts. No matter when or how society progresses, the United States has always adopted white people as the mainstream social value, and other races must accept and believe in this value if they want to integrate.
Of course, there are also performances in the play that reflect the characteristics of the American melting pot. For example, when entering a prison, the guards will first ask about their beliefs, so that they can take care of prisoners with special requirements in terms of eating habits. Even in prison, they are free enough to stick to their beliefs and daily rituals.
Then, even the perfect system can't replace people's prejudice. Following Naz's imprisonment, his family suffered a devastating blow. First his father was swept out of the taxi business in partnership with others, and then his mother lost her livelihood job. And his younger brother, a good student with excellent academic performance, was also dismissed by the school. Their lives can never get back on track.
Naz's parents and younger brother performed wonderfully, perfectly presenting a helpless family living in a foreign country to everyone. They hardly ever laughed from the beginning to the end. Under the pressure of life, they lived cautiously and rigorously.
Going out of the family circle, looking at the community and society in which they live, all Muslims are subjected to a deeper level of discrimination because of Naz's case, the walls are sprayed with swear words, and the normal taxi drivers are attacked. In this country where Muslims live, they are discriminated against and expelled.
Having said that, as to whether Naz is the real murderer or not, it is not the concern and investigation of the play. Perhaps in the process of his coma, there was someone else, or maybe it was his inner sinful riot when he was unconscious. There are two possibilities. At first glance at his big eyes, he felt as innocent as a deer. However, when he was released from prison, his eyes were no longer clear.
Maybe he was an innocent person before entering the prison, but the moment he walked out of the prison, he was already a qualified criminal.
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