I watched it for the title of "Director Liu He's Violent Trilogy".
To be honest, films with the theme of the underworld did not attract me very much. Maybe it has something to do with the movies that I don't like fighting and killing. It's hard to say what's exciting about that so-called big scene. Maybe it's more about watching this movie as a drama.
The starting point of this film is still the point of view of the little people often chosen by Korean directors. The character Zhao Bingdou played by Zhao Yincheng is a street gangster. He is 29 years old, and his family conditions are very poor. His mother is sick, and there are younger brothers and sisters below. Zhao Bingdou himself is a master who fights desperately, and he actually wants to show it to win the love and care of his eldest brother. But his eldest brother seemed to treat him as an ordinary gangster, and even when Zhao Bingdou couldn't pay the rent and was about to be kicked out, he still treated him like a dog. This made Zhao Bingdou very unconvinced, especially in the game hall that was originally assigned to him, he was still dreaming of flying high, but he was smashed by the rival gang. The two sides fought in the quagmire. Zhao Bingdou risked being beaten to death. I didn't want to let go of the game hall, but because my eldest brother stabbed someone and made another younger brother take the blame, he took the game hall as compensation to that younger brother's power, and Zhao Bingdou didn't get anything. Zhao Bingdou was very dissatisfied, and once accidentally gave the eldest brother who knew the eldest brother, let's call it the eldest boss for short. The big boss had trouble living in his dormitory because of an elder Prosecutor Park, and he wanted his younger brothers to get rid of him quickly. Zhao Bingdou remembered it carefully, because in South Korea, killing a chief prosecutor is still a very serious matter. But Zhao Bingdou is not an ordinary person. He wants to turn over too much, and he wants to seek wealth and wealth at risk. In the middle of the night, together with his cronies, they beat Prosecutor Park to death with a baseball bat. His eldest brother noticed that Zhao Bingdou had jumped over him and hooked up with his boss, and suddenly felt a sense of crisis and wanted to cut the grass and roots. But he was frightened by the grass, which made Zhao Bingdou wary. Zhao Bingdou killed his elder brother at the wedding of his elder brother's sister. At this point, Zhao Bingdou officially became the eldest brother, and he became a direct subordinate to the big boss, which was very popular for a while.
Zhao Bingdou has an elementary school classmate named Kim Minho. He is a down-and-out young director. He is preparing to make a movie about the underworld, but his manuscripts are repeatedly rejected because the producer thinks that the script of the movie is not good, which makes Kim Minho very distressed, so he plans to Get in touch with the underworld and see what the real underworld looks like. By chance, he knew that Zhao Bingdou was in the gang, so he came to Zhao Bingdou. Zhao Bingdou was very vigilant at the beginning of the period and did not communicate with him. So Kim Minho organized a primary school party and let Zhao Bingdou meet his goddess Jiang Xianzhu when he was in primary school. A little ambiguity reappeared between Jo Byung Doo and Kang Hyun Joo. However, it is not all smooth sailing in the emotional world. Zhao Bingdou's underworld status made Jiang Xianzhu very worried and afraid, so he proposed to break up. Zhao Bingdou was deeply hit, bought drunk on the roadside, and asked Jin Minhao to take him home. Unexpectedly, on this night when Zhao Bingdou was at his most vulnerable, Jin Minho used his drunkenness to rigged his mouth and used Zhao Bingdou's words to kill the prosecutor and his eldest brother.
Zhao Bingdou was still kept in the dark, thinking that Kim Minho would keep the secret for him. But Kim Minho has decided to put his story on the big screen without telling him. While putting the daughter of the big boss into the movie as the heroine, he also personally taught how to make the underworld more realistic on the filming site. When the movie was released, Kim Minho didn't even invite Zhao Bingdou to watch the movie, but the big boss came and called Zhao Bingdou. Zhao Bingdou looked at the movie screen and was stunned. Because he just saw the hope of a better life, he took the position of the eldest brother, opened his own studio, helped the eldest brother's real estate acquisition and solved the problem of nail households, reconciled with Jiang Xianzhu, and was ready to propose... But in this movie, all of his things are shattered. The big boss thinks that he is not serious, said what he should not say, and no longer trusts him; because Kim Minho was threatened by his younger brother, he reported the case to the police, and he became a figure chased and killed by the underworld. But Zhao Bingdou didn't give up, and finally went to see the big boss, saying that he would deal with Jin Minho, and then absconded. But the big boss no longer trusted him, and instead arranged for Zhao Bingdou's younger brother to ambush Zhao Bingdou. Before Zhao Bingdou died, he stared at his little brother, as if he didn't believe it. In the last scene, at the banquet of the big boss, it became Zhao Bingdou's younger brother and Kim Minho, and there was laughter again.
With a film of more than two hours, it seems that it is indeed difficult to summarize every detail in a short overview. But apart from those fighting and killing scenes, what is the director trying to express? Zhao Bingdou is an out-and-out low-level figure. He has no culture, and his family conditions are not good. All he has is strength and loyalty. He has his dreams, he wants to turn around and live a good life. There is no way to ascend, only an unscrupulous road can only be chosen. For example, he killed the chief prosecutor, for example, he killed the elder brother, for example, he buried the nails alive. This is all his ruthless side, completely ignoring the constraints of laws, morals, rules of the world, etc. In this way, he became the eldest brother. He lived a good life, and he was very content. He had no idea of going any further, but just wanted to please the upper class. This is his contradictory side. From him, I seem to see myself, that kind of unwilling to be ordinary, but easy to be contented. Occasionally, I force myself to break the boat, but more often, the status quo of life makes me quite satisfied. This is the problem: Zhao Bingdou is using unscrupulous methods. Unless he is independent, how can he reassure the people above? If he kills one chief prosecutor, won't he kill the second one? He killed his previous eldest brother, will he kill his current eldest boss? The brothers below, seeing that Zhao Bingdou killed the elder brother, can he imitate it? This kind of predicament also appeared in Chen Youliang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Chen Youliang also killed his benefactor in the upper position, so his troops were broken. Zhao Bingdou is also, although Zhao Bingdou treats his younger brothers as family, but the younger brother also has the idea of the younger brother, and they also want to be in the position. He Zhao Bingdou could not escape death. What about Kim Minho? He is also a small person, and he had more opportunities than Zhao Bingdou. Even if it is an office political struggle, it is better than the bloody slashing and killing of the gang, at least one life can be saved. He wanted to turn over, and he chose to betray his friend Zhao Bingdou. Of course, maybe he didn't regard Zhao Bingdou as a friend at first, but just regarded it as a kind of transaction.
If people at the bottom want to stand up, they have to sell something, perhaps their own conscience, or the life of others. You can only wear the crown if your hands are covered in blood. We may be stepping on the throne of someone else's body, and we will be a stepping stone for others. This is a reflection on society given by Korean directors. For our society, it is something worth thinking about. Will our society become like this?
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