Chapter 229: The Responsibility of Filmmakers
After Shen Lang sent Jing Cheng and the others away, he held the book "The Sacred Tree" in his hand and began to ponder.

"Blind Well", adapted from the novel "Shenmu", is a movie that cannot be broadcast in another time and space.

The story of this movie is actually not complicated. There are only three main characters, two liars and one fool.

Two criminals from the same village, one surnamed Song and the other surnamed Tang, teamed up to kill a miner named Yuan in a small coal mine and defrauded the mine owner of compensation.

Then they wandered around, looking for their next target, and finally they found a 16-year-old boy, whose last name was also Yuan. The two men forged their identities through threats and intimidation, creating the illusion that the boy was their relative, and finally they found a coal mine together, started mining coal, and waited for an opportunity to kill the boy played by Wang Baoqiang.

Many of the crimes that occur in dark underground mines actually originate from real life.

Whether in another time and space or in this time and space, many cases similar to the plot of the novel have occurred.

So, this movie is, to some extent, a very real [semi-documentary].

When Shen Lang saw this movie in another world, he was completely shocked.

After watching the movie, he couldn't calm down for a long time. He kept thinking about the dark mine and the malice that was everywhere in the movie.

At that time, he was thinking, are there really such vicious human beings in reality?

But after learning about similar cases, he remained silent.

It turns out that reality in this world is even more cruel than in the movies.

He thought of the current short video platforms, which are filled with popular science works such as "How to Take the Bus" and "How to Go to the Hospital" that are so common sense that they are outrageous, and they often have hundreds of thousands of likes.

This prompted Shen Lang to ask himself: "Are there still poor people in this world we live in?"

In the previous life, before four rural youths said goodbye to this world, the last words they left to the world were: "Hello world, goodbye"!
When someone found out about this, he asked Shen Lang, "Why don't these people work hard? Why do they want to die?"

To give another example, in another world there is a film called "Never Stop" that reflects the mining disaster in Shanxi Province. It was very short and had a lot of deletions, but it still caused a great discussion in society.

After watching the movie, many viewers angrily criticized the director online: "What's the point of comparing misery?"

Does it make sense?

Shen Lang found the answer after visiting "Blind Well".

Yes, and it is very important.

The reason why movies are called art is not because of how beautiful the screen effects presented by the costumes and props are.

The meaning of a movie is to take the audience to experience a different life.

Movies can tell you that there are many people in this world who are so poor that you can't even imagine.

The movie can tell you that there are still many people who have never even been to a hospital or taken a bus in their entire lives.

Movies can tell you the cruelty of mining accidents.

The movie can also tell you how cold-blooded a person must be to kill someone so easily.

Shen Lang thinks that the movie "Blind Well" is really great, not because in another world, one of the protagonists of this movie, Yuan Fengming, later became a migrant worker and became a movie emperor.

Rather, it is a questioning of the depths of human nature:

Why choose to save an evil person?

……

"This is the movie I want to adapt, and this is also my original intention for adapting this movie. Mr. Tang, Mr. Wang, can the company invest in our movie?"

Shen Lang sat in Tang Haibin's office and sincerely introduced his ideas to him and Wang Jian, who was in charge of the film section.

After he finished speaking, the office fell silent. After a while, Wang Jian said with embarrassment: "Minister Shen, based on your description of the script, I think it will be difficult for this film to pass the review!"

Tang Haibin nodded and said, "Teacher Shen, to be honest, I was shocked after listening to your story, but as Mr. Wang said, it will be difficult for this play to pass the review."

"As you know, we are a listed company and all our corporate actions are for the purpose of making profits."

"I believe that with Mr. Shen's writing ability, this film will definitely be thought-provoking, but..."

But what? Tang Haibin stopped talking in time and didn't continue.

Shen Lang nodded, indicating that he understood. He originally wanted to use this drama, although it was very explicit, to attract Penguin Pictures' investment as it would likely win awards at home and abroad.

But Penguin Pictures has recently made a lot of money from its short drama business alone, and has carved out a unique path in the film and television industry and has already established a firm foothold.

At this time, if the investment cannot recover the returns and can only get awards, it is estimated that it will not be very attractive to the top management.

After leaving Penguin Pictures, he wanted to find familiar investors such as Han Ping and Li Jie to invest in this film.

But then I thought, forget it, their money doesn’t come from the wind.

Favors are favors, business is business, so it’s better not to try to annoy others.

Thinking of this, he looked at the "Shenmu" in his hand and sighed.

"Art returns to reality. After all, we still need to eat!"

A few days later, Shen Lang had already put aside his original intention of filming "Blind Well".

Unexpectedly, one morning while eating, he suddenly saw a piece of news.

It turned out that a "mine accident" occurred at the Xinhai Iron Mine in Guda'an, Meng Province, and people died. The mine owner did not report the accident, but settled the matter privately, paying 68 yuan in compensation. Because of the huge compensation, the funds were not available, and the wages of more than 50 workers were in arrears.

In mid-December last year, workers gathered to demand their wages, which alarmed the police. The angry workers also reported the mine's concealed work-related fatality accident.

After investigation, the police found that the "dead" had lodging and travel records in Yunnan after the mine accident. The police rushed to his registered residence in Zhaotong, Yunnan, and confirmed that he was still alive. They speculated that this was not an ordinary mine accident, but a vicious criminal case of deliberate murder and fraud, so they quickly opened a case for investigation.

After careful investigation, the police arrested four suspects in the Da'an Xinhai Iron Mine murder case in Yunnan Province and Myanmar.

The interrogation revealed that these four were not first-time offenders and they had committed multiple crimes. Their confessions implicated 34 other accomplices. After being arrested, these 34 people continued to identify other suspects. Finally, the police confirmed that a total of 74 people were involved in the case.

What is shocking is that these 74 people all came from the same place, and more than 40 of them were even villagers from the same village.

This place is an extremely poor village. In order to get rid of the fate of poverty, villagers have gone out to work. In the past few years, some villagers who worked in coal mines returned home and were very generous, which made many villagers form the idea that coal mines can make money. As a result, a large number of villagers went to work in coal mines in Shanxi, Hebei and other places.

Mining coal in the mines can earn 1,800 yuan a month. When the market is good, the monthly salary can be 5,000 to 6,000 yuan or even over 10,000 yuan, which is very attractive. However, mining is a high-risk industry, and news of villagers dying in mining accidents often comes from the village.

Mining accidents are sad things, but surprisingly, some villagers have built small houses with the compensation money from their relatives who died in mining accidents and have lived a comfortable life. Some uneducated people in the village saw this as a way to make money! They formed gangs and specifically looked for small mines with incomplete procedures, created mining accidents, demanded huge compensation money to settle privately, and then embarked on the road to rapid wealth.

In just a few years, the gang members built small buildings costing 200,000 or 300,000 yuan and drove cars. There is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. Their ways spread in the village, but people did not report them, but chose to join them and make a fortune together...

As they continued to commit crimes, they would also sum up their experience and gradually form a complete set of "pig killing" procedures...

Seeing this, Shen Lang could no longer sit still.

"Shoot even if you have to borrow money. Expose the evil to the sun, and then the evil will disappear!"

If you make money in the film industry, you should also give back to society through movies.

This is not only a filmmaker's responsibility, but also a filmmaker's obligation!
"Shoot, must shoot!"

(End of this chapter)