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Li Dong Hai is rushed off his feet every day at his job with the Disabled Federation. He helps everyone and never asks for anything in return. His son thinks Li Dong Hai's selflessness is extreme, en example of which arises when Huang Kun, a poor paraplegic, proposes marriage to Wang Jing. The girl's mother objects but Li Dong Hai comes to the rescue with 200,000 renminbi that he had saved for his own son's marriage. His wife complains but, unexpextedly, his son supports his decision. About to welcome the new couple, however, Li Dong Hai gets some bad health news...
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
ZH
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
