Nizi’s video highlights

In 1986, when director Yu Kanping adapted Pai Hsien-yong's novel "Evil Son" to the screen, Taiwan was still under martial law, the people were conservative, and gay issues could only be discussed at the bottom of society, let alone made into a movie. . In particular, AIDS, which was dubbed the "Black Death of the 20th Century" at the time, had just broken out and was equated with male homosexuality. Under the old moral standards, it was described as God's divine punishment for homosexuals. The discussion of gay issues in film and television works is like a scourge, and gay eroticism in movies can only be flickered and touched upon. At that time, censorship standards were very strict. Not only political censorship, but also films that had an impact on social morality would not be approved. It is difficult for gay plots to escape the committee's scissors. The more cuts there are, the more creativity will be damaged and the investment money will be harder to recover. Therefore, the filming focus of "Evil Son" is extremely strictly controlled. The focus is on the rebellious character of the protagonist and the friendship between an old gay man and his female friend, and the scenes of physical intimacy are minimized. The content has been modified to make it embarrassing, leaving no room for the homosexual lust and love entanglements in the book to appear. The ever-flying egrets can only be used as a metaphor for the loneliness of homosexuals being exiled from society, and the background of Longzi's military family is only implicitly mentioned. The various considerations when adapting the script were so different from the strict standards of the Information Bureau. When it was submitted to the censorship office, the censor's bell rang non-stop. The Information Bureau banned the performance twice in return. When it was submitted for review a third time, In order to get the film released, the film company had no choice but to agree to have 21 trimmed parts by the censorship unit, and the edited copy including the negatives was handed over before being released as a "restricted" version. The complete version has never been released. In addition to the examination of political moral awareness, another challenge of the film version is that the text crosses the barrier of the image: how to make the complex structure and character relationships of hundreds of pages of the original work methodical and deeply rooted in the limited space of about one hundred minutes. Narrate. In terms of character adaptation, the screenwriter condensed the three main characters in the book: Mr. Guo, who uses photography to record the figure of the youthful bird, the all-faced Coach Yang, and Mr. Fu, who is determined to protect the evil sons of the New Park due to the loss of his son, into the characters played by Sun Yue. The body of Coach Yang was turned into a nest for the helpless birds of the new park, in order to present the human characteristics of tolerance and consideration in a pure way. Although this adaptation method omitted other story lines that also have emotional depth, it still It also makes the character image and narrative axis clearer; for the plot and theme, Director Yu focuses on three stories from the perspective of warmth and humanity: the tragic childhood and family story of Li Qing and the supporting characters, and the lonely bird of youth in the new park. The deep friendship with Coach Yang and the intersection of fate between Long Zi and Li Qing describe the love-hate conflict and desire to return to their original family after these gay teenagers defected and were expelled from their families, and how they struggled with friendship, support, and identity. With the condensation of recognition, another warm "home" is reconstructed.