Film Name: 追缉 查無此心 / The Abandoned
Maybe it’s because I seldom watch Taiwanese movies, every time I watch it, I feel both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, especially this newly released The Abandoned (originally titled Check No Such Mind), which gave me a lot of different feelings from the mainland’s domestic crime films.
That kind of dark, obscure, sultry atmosphere is the most suitable for crime/suspense/thriller movie tone, especially do not shy away from suggesting “strange power” and show the violent elements of the texture, is exactly our side of the similar movies are the most scarce.
That’s why I regret watching the censored and encoded version on the big screen, the “discount” is really a bit too big. …………
Fortunately, this regret does not affect the basic expression of “The Abandoned” movie, which has everything that should be there and everything that should be told.
(Spoiler alert below.)
I was most impressed by the female perspective of the film, which includes both internal and external perspectives – I personally am quite averse to feminist/identity-political arguments when watching film and television, similar to the way some morality police like to scrutinize works from a “three-dimensional” perspective – but The Abandoned made me feel like I could talk about it from a female perspective. “It’s similar to the way some morality police like to scrutinize their work, picketing and shouting down people – but The Abandoned made me feel like I could talk about it from a female perspective.
To a large extent, this is because the movie shows both the fragile, weak and emotional side of women, and the tenacious, tough and unbeatable side of women, and it is with the former that the latter is highlighted as valuable.
The policewoman Wu Jie was planning to shoot herself when she appeared on the scene, because she had been unable to leave after her husband (or fiancé) Yang Zhenguo committed suicide, and after being tortured for a year, she was ready to kill herself in the same driver’s seat as Yang Zhenguo, but the discovery of the body of the woman in the flowing water (Wali) saved her from death.
It can be said that all the women in “The Abandoned” have been placed in the position of the “weak”, with Wu Jie, who is the strongest and highest-ranking woman, trapped by her love and having a bad time all day long, and newcomer Cai Weishan, who is caught in the middle of the police force due to her lack of experience and the fact that all the former officers in the police force are in the same position. The newcomer, Choi Wei Shan, who is inexperienced, is called around by all the seniors in the police station, and foreign laborers without legal status, such as Wali and Sai Ping, have even become victims of abuse.
The movie also designed a very “real” scene: after discovering Wu Jie’s light hearted behavior, the police chief Zeng, in order to make her not to think too much, forced her to take Choi Wei San to work on the case, but in the arrest of the suspect Lin Yousheng and laborer Aman, in the close fight, Wu Jie took off her gun, and let Aman pick it up to kill himself.
Afterward, Chief Tsang blames himself, and coupled with outside pressure, he breaks up the pairing of Wu Jie and Nao, as having two female police officers out in the field together is a glaring omission.
The Abandoned uses this to fully illuminate the disparity between women and men in terms of physical strength, an objective difference that doesn’t become different because of respect or civilization, and that the only thing that can change this disadvantage is the guns in their hands – the modern rules overshadowing the primitive ones.
Interestingly, the few scenes at the end that reveal the truth further emphasize this point:
When the murderer Fan Changfu reveals his true colors, the irrational Lin Yousheng wants to strangle him, Wu Jie can’t stop him at all with her bare hands, she can only shoot him in the leg, and then when she goes to look for Sai Ping, Wu Jie’s only way to suppress Fan Changfu is only a pistol (the identity of a police officer is not useful at all), and then when she is set up by the other side to lose her gun, the two of them wrestle with Wu Jie is not an opponent after all, and she is almost smothered and strangled, and has to retrieve her gun in order to The two of them are no match for each other.
These episodes all illustrate that only by relying on the fruits of civilization and modern means can women fight and even win against men, and that on the contrary, it is often women who suffer when they fight men under “absolutely fair” conditions.
This level of irony also exists in The Abandoned: Fan Changfu specifically picks out illegal female laborers who dare not be exposed and kills them, betting that those who are related to them will not dare to speak out, and it turns out that he is right, and if it were not for Aman, who is acquainted with Valli, who is too upset to reveal the matter quietly, Fan would still be at large.
If the female laborers had legal status and could seek help without fear, Fan would never have dared to act so recklessly – civilization and order are the best protection for people.
More interestingly, the reason why Fan Changfu became a psychopathic serial killer is that he once fell in love with an illegal migrant worker with all his heart and accepted her as a family member, but the other party not only cheated on his feelings, but also swiped up all of his family’s possessions and ran away.
Fan Changfu gave his “ex-wife” the same right to enjoy modern civilization, so that she could be equal to himself, but the other party took advantage of this opportunity to do harm in the opposite direction, which stimulated Fan Changfu to return to primitive savagery under the guise of civilization, and started hunting based on the premise of inequality of identity and gender.
But, after all, we are living in an ever progressing and civilized society, and have been trying to pass this light to every dark corner.
At the end of the movie, the murderer is put to death, the female victims are avenged, Nao, who was injured in the line of duty, recovers well, and Wu Jie, after going through this case, finally comes out of the haze and starts a new life.
Although The Abandoned is a chilling crime movie, in the end it gave me a snowy warmth.
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