Taiwanese dramas are making a comeback.
The #MeToo movement that overturned Taiwan Entertainment last month was caused by a line in Xie Yingxuan's new play that resisted sexual harassment in the workplace.
More and more women are beginning to realize that sexual harassment is not a trivial matter and should not be let go lightly.
This month, the wind vane of the perspective of Taiwanese dramas has turned again.
It has gradually moved down from the most glamorous side of society, and returned to the most familiar and best social issues.
- "Human Rights".
It seems cliché, but it is a little different from the past.
The "person" of this time.
is more like a "cockroach" in the eyes of the public.
The poster sees it.
On one side are judicial officers in robes, and on the other side are Muslim women wearing hijabs.
Religious entanglement? Faith hedge? Racism?
- neither.
is a more sensitive issue than this, but because it is so common, no one cares about it.
Although we all call ourselves "cheap labor" under high population pressure.
But compared to the other group, the other group is more able to endure the strangeness of the environment, the embarrassment of money, the language barrier, and the unreserved dignity of the marginalized group. Neither 996 nor the label of involution seems to be able to put them suffering in a nutshell.
In Taiwan, people call them "foreign labor", which means "foreign labor".
In Sir's view.
In addition, it's not just foreigners, but society treats them as "outsiders".
Yet we all forget.
In the face of suffering.
people, there is no distinction between inside and outside.
1
Six months ago, a shocking murder case shocked the whole of Taiwan.
The murderer sneaked into a fisherman's house late at night.
Not only brutally murdered the husband and wife, but also drowned the 2-year-old daughter in the bathroom.
What kind of hatred?
No one cares.
Because all eyes are on one point, the identity of the murderer——
a foreign laborer.
Simply put.
Such foreigners are like ghosts, scattered all over Taiwan.
Men do manual work, and women work as domestic servants.
Most of them come from poor Southeast Asia, relying on smuggling or work visas to come to Taiwan to earn a living.
Although the language barrier, but also considered cheap.
So.
After the murder case, the public opinion about the killing of foreign workers was in full swing. Taiwanese who were accustomed to serving foreign workers felt a little nervous under the shock of the murder case.
is worried that this outside group will hurt themselves one day.
In their view, this group of people is " cockroaches ".
At this time.
Public prosecutor Tong Baoju (played by Li Mingshun) took over the case.
is in charge of defending the suspect Abdul, the death row prisoner from Indonesia.
Homicide by the Sea
Look at you
Human rights fighter Tong Baoju
In fact, at first glance, there is nothing to argue about.
Because the camera is clearly on the front, the high probability of killing people is that this guy didn't run away.
But therein lies the problem.
At that time, Taiwan was arguing about "abolition of death" (the abolition of the death penalty) and "unanimous decision" (cases involving the death penalty must be unanimously approved by all judges before the death penalty can be imposed).
The foreign worker who was sentenced to death just hit the gunpoint of criminal law reform.
70% of the people in Taiwan
lack confidence in the fairness of the judiciary
75% think that Taiwan’s laws
only protect powerful people
But 85% of the people
support the death penalty
It is a drastic revision, and on the one hand is passionate public opinion.
A foreign prisoner on death row kicked off the whole drama.
But is it just a conflict between politicians and the people?
No.
and capital.
Who?
The person in charge of Taiwan Fisheries.
Because the victim and the suspect were on the same fishing boat, the relationship between the captain and the workers was the only social relationship between the two.
At that time, the cruelty and injustice of foreign workers in Taiwan's fishery industry, and even related gray industries at sea, were a fact that was certain but could not be treated by outsiders.
So what happened on board?
Are there more serious cases?
Very likely, this is the motive for the murder.
It's just a pity.
During Tong Baoju's contact with this Indonesian man, he found that this murderer not only lacked normal interpersonal skills, but also talked to himself in a nonsensical manner.
In other words.
He's probably mentally ill.
Can't quite tell the truth.
Therefore, the entire fishing industry hastily ended and entered the center of the vortex of public opinion.
Unscrupulous in promoting the death penalty.
That foreign worker
must die
Thus, facing a murderer.
The various forces in the whole drama: Abolitionists, capital, and the public.
All parties form an equilateral triangle, pulling and balancing each other.
Only one person is different.
Tong Baoju.
He has nothing to do with profit, he only wants the truth.
In the process of negotiating with the murderer, he discovered a strange point.
If it is a vendetta caused by a shipping dispute.
It is enough to kill an adult, why go so far as to kill a child?
Guess what.
The other party's answer directly stunned him:
(he thought) submerged in water for two minutes won't die
Do you think he's just trying to quibble?
- not really.
Because as the progress of the case accelerated, evidence and witnesses began to appear one by one.
At this moment, a terrifying detail appeared.
It turned out to be on the boat.
This murderous foreign worker was bullied and oppressed by the victim who was the captain at the time because of his illness.
Not only did they cut off his festering fingers (too lazy to heal).
He was also often submerged in water for up to two minutes.
As for the reason...
They say so, "fun".
Good guy.
If the captain and his wife were killed because of revenge.
Then the girl's death is likely to be a tragedy caused by the negligence of a mentally ill patient without common sense (he really didn't know that two minutes can drown a person).
Now, it's not as simple as the death penalty.
Because of the two-minute drowning timeline, it can not only be used as an argument for reversal.
more importantly.
Compared with the truth and axioms, a simple death sentence cannot be a painkiller for the suffering of this group, let alone stop the public's mouth on the foreign labor dispute.
As long as oppression does not disappear, neither will revenge.
2
But the question is, how did the "cockroaches" come about?
As you might imagine.
"cockroach", not a cockroach from the beginning.
Everyone is raised by their biological parents.
It's just that they were born in poverty, living in a foreign land, without household registration, social security and identity.
can only be reduced to the margins of society, fleeing hastily outside the mainstream.
In the play, I asked this sentence through the mouth of a child:
Why do you work so long
but still have no money?
Results.
No one can answer.
In this sense, it has nothing to do with any particular group.
It could even be any of us.
For example.
If you still remember the title of the play: "The Defender of Bachimen". What does
mean?
The introduction was given at the beginning of the play: Bachimen is the gathering place of Taiwanese aborigines and Amis people.
Amis.
This is yet another "marginal group".
In the eyes of foreign workers, the Ami people are Taiwanese, but in fact they are. They are indigenous people, and they are the ethnic group most qualified to call themselves Taiwanese.
But what about the reality?
Under the strife of modern society, in the class-divided Taiwanese society where "Tianlong people" are popular, Tainan and Taipei are already incompatible, let alone other more finely divided classes.
Therefore, whether it is the aborigines who have taken root here, or the foreign workers who are migrant workers.
"inside" or "outside".
and are essentially signs of "backwardness" and "poverty" in the eyes of the public, and they deserve to be eliminated by more advanced and high-quality populations.
They are all "cockroaches".
There is a detail in the play.
Tong Baoju, who was born in Bachimen, was a glamorous lawyer, a so-called "human rights fighter".
The result?
After others, he is not even willing to admit his parentage.
Even a role like a lawyer reveals subtle prejudices subconsciously.
Not to mention those who live at the bottom, wandering outside the "correct".
The class always builds towering and cold barriers, invisibly straddling the living crowd.
Women among foreign workers.
Because I believe in Islam, because I don't understand the language.
Conservative and timid, they are often the targets of sexual harassment by male employers.
The Amis family who were killed.
This group is used to relying on the sea for food, and there are even pictures of marine life on the walls to teach children to identify.
Just because they can't think of other ways to go if they don't do this.
The "female minister" who wants to reform the criminal law.
You thought that a "human rights person" finally came, but it turned out that he just wanted to be a "superior person".
In the face of such an undisguised class gap.
Even the law, which is black and white in the eyes of the public, has an elusive shade of gray.
Can you see it?
abolish death, public opinion, capitalists.
foreign workers, aboriginal people, modern society.
ostensibly is the mediation of a triangular force involved in a murder case.
In fact, the description and head-up of the differences between the three major groups in the play are the most distinct textures within the shell of "human rights".
In the big dye tank of Taiwanese society, there are not only cockroaches.
And "the one who hates cockroaches", "the one who makes cockroaches", "the one who destroys cockroaches"...
and most importantly, "the one who doesn't want to be a cockroach".
Like many years A while ago, Tong Baoju’s father couldn’t bear it when the Amis were in the same inferior position as the Indonesians now. He picked up a knife and yelled at the oppressors:
Aren’t we human?
To put it bluntly .
You think that killing is already the most terrifying existence.
But the real horror lies in.
No matter how the bottom of the society changes blood, the cannibalistic class oppression is still difficult to change.
then just like what Tolstoy said in "Resurrection".
"In a country where slavery exists and is maintained, the only way out for an upright citizen is prison."
3
A total of 8 episodes of "The Defender of the Eight Foot Gate" ushered in the finale tonight.
Sir, I won't spoil anything about the result.
But it's worth noting.
When Sir was looking through the materials, he found that this drama was not only adapted from the novel of the same name, but some people also believed that it was related to the aboriginal homicide incident in Taiwan in 1986.
The Tang Ying-shen incident was a social case in Taiwan that occurred in 1986. Tang Yingshen, an aborigine of the Tsou ethnic group, was sentenced to death because he was dissatisfied with the forced work of his Han employer, killed his employer and his family, and aroused discussions on aboriginal issues in Taiwanese society.
Tang Yingshen Incident-Wikipedia
Familiar?
Yes.
In "Blood Guanyin" in 2017, the aboriginal Mark in the film is also considered by many to be the protagonist of the case.
But different.
Mark in "Blood Avalokitesvara", whether he is a barbarian who rapes women or is treated as a sex slave, always has a lingering stereotype and the instrumentality of being an "other".
"Eight Foot Gate" obviously goes a step further.
It doesn't matter whether it is aborigines, foreign workers, or intersex people mixed between various ethnic groups.
This allows us to see that under the surface of Taiwanese society that is "entertaining to death" for the mainland, the underlying ecology and human nature that need more attention are mottled.
Exactly.
The focus of Taiwanese dramas these years has long ceased to be the stereotyped little love.
The hit "The Distance Between Us and Evil".
Discuss murderers and the original sin of human nature from the aspects of media, law, and people's livelihood.
The tear-jerking masterpiece "A Handful of Green".
Breaking through the dualistic perspectives often seen in war dramas, starting with love, tells the story of the "war criminals" of the Air Force of the Republic of China.
Professional drama "Tears of Vulcan".
It's also about firefighters, but other people's firefighters are not just talking about love.
In addition, thinking about equal rights, death education, and deconstruction of family relationships.
And all oppressed groups, the awakening and resistance without exception.
△"Your child is not your child", "She and her", "Bad Obsession Eliminator"
and this "The Defender of Bachimen".
The story of foreign workers is obviously just the beginning.
This kind of disclosure that affects the whole body by pulling a hair, is not just a gimmick in the first place.
human nature, ethnic group, lineage, discrimination.
Everything seems to be far away from us.
But is it really far away from us?
Far, is it an illusion, or a self-comforting rhetoric under a realistic mentality that dare not delve into it?
Just like the line in the play—
The foreign worker on land is just a story. Sexual harassment, or the oppression of marginalized groups in this drama, do the cores of these stories really only exist in parallel worlds?
if not.
So, who thought they were watching the fire from the other side, only to find out that they were resting on their laurels?
Who is on the land and who is in the sea?
So.
Finally, Sir would like to ask one more question: What exactly do we want to watch when we watch dramas?
Looking for fun?
Listening to stories?
are both right.
Just, if you just want to have fun, can you think for two seconds when you laugh?
If you want to listen to a story.
So when seeing the world through other people's eyes, can you have some different ideas?
It doesn't matter if you criticize, it doesn't matter if you are spicy, as long as it is not repeated praise.
Most importantly.
No matter which parallel world we are in, we all hope to see some pictures that are not whitewashed.
even if it is fictional.
even makes people uncomfortable.
still makes people believe that what is projected in the beauty or hypocrisy is the real world we live in.
And this.
is the current trend of Taiwanese dramas.
It is a drama and should have the value.
- If you want to live comfortably in this system
you have to learn to shut up, understand?
-I'm not a judge to live comfortably!
