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A Touch of Sin (Tian Zhu Ding)
Come join Movie Chat co-hosts Michael Bloom and Shireen Farrahi as they lead the eighth session in this movie discussion series.
A Touch of Sin consists of four loosely interconnected vignettes that are depicted chronologically, each set in a different location in China and based on newsworthy events and incidents in the country.
Prologue
San'er (Wang Baoqiang) travels on a motorbike across rural Shanxi. He is accosted by three thugs, who attempt to rob him. Unfazed, San'er pulls out a gun and kills them all.
Dahai (Shanxi)
Dahai (Jiang Wu) is the de facto representative of the workers at a privatized coal mine. Angered at the village's poverty while local officials grow rich off the mine's operation, Dahai confronts the village chief, who dismisses his grievances. He goes about the village making his intentions to report the officials to the Central Committee in Beijing known, and is alternatingly met with quiet support, indifference and annoyance. Dahai's crusade comes to a head when he confronts the Jiaos, the owners of the mine, in front of the villagers. Losing popular support, he is attacked by one of the Jiaos' hired thugs with a shovel, making him the subject of the village's ridicule. He is then visited by the Jiaos' representatives in the hospital, who compensate him with hush money.
Dahai visits his sister in a nearby town, reaffirming his vengeance against the officials. He retrieves a shotgun from his house and goes to the village accountant, attempting to extract a written confession regarding the chief's misdeeds. When the accountant calls him a coward, Dahai shoots him and his wife. Dahai continues his rampage, shooting a lackey who earlier ridiculed him, the village chief, a man mistreating his horse, and finally Mr. Jiao himself. Covered in blood, Dahai smiles as patrol cars approach the village. This segment is based on the Hu Wenhai incident [zh-tw] which took place in 2001.
San'er (Chongqing)
San'er returns to Chongqing for the Chinese New Year celebrations and to celebrate his mother's 70th birthday. His estranged wife rejects his mysterious monetary contributions to the family. On New Year's Eve, San'er bonds with his son by firing off his gun during a fireworks show. Following the New Year celebrations, San'er buys bus tickets for three cities seemingly at random. He evades his wife's questioning on his plans. The source of San'er's income is revealed when he heads into town and methodically guns down a woman and her husband before snatching her handbag. He then leaves Chongqing. San'er's story is loosely based on that of Zhou Kehua, a gunman who committed several murders and robberies between 2004 and 2012.
Xiaoyu (Hunan)
Xiaoyu (Zhao Tao) meets with her lover Youliang (Zhang Jiayi), a married man. She gives him an ultimatum to divorce his wife within six months. Youliang returns to Guangdong and Xiaoyu heads to her job as a receptionist at a spa. There, she is assaulted by Youliang's wife and her hired thugs, but she manages to escape by hiding in a van offering a fortune-telling service. Xiaoyu hitches a ride with some construction workers to see her mother. On her way back, she witnesses corrupt local officials ordering thugs to beat up a worker who refuses to pay an arbitrarily set-up toll. That night, as she leaves her shift, Xiaoyu encounters the same officials, who harass and assault her when she refuses to give in to their demands for sex. She stabs and kills one of the officials with a fruit knife left behind by Youliang. Leaving her workplace in shock, she calls emergency services, confessing to the murder. This segment is based on the Deng Yujiao incident which took place in 2009.
Xiaohui (Guangdong)
Xiaohui (Luo Lanshan), a Hunan native working at a textile factory, accidentally causes a workplace injury. Unwilling to work while his wages are transferred to the injured party as compensation, he flees employment and heads to Dongguan, where he finds work at a hostess club called Golden Age. There, he strikes up a budding friendship with Lianrong (Li Meng), a hostess and another Hunan native. Over time, Xiaohui and Lianrong grow close, but Lianrong rejects Xiaohui's feelings and his proposal that they leave Dongguan. She reveals that she has a daughter and is only doing sex work in order to provide for her. Xiaohui witnesses Lianrong performing fellatio on a customer one night and quits. Xiaohui takes on a job he earlier rejected for unfavorable benefits - assembling electronics at a factory. Penniless until his next payday, he receives a call from his mother, who berates him for not sending money home. He is then caught by Chang Ling, the injured worker from the textile factory. Chang Ling and his gang prepare to beat Xiaohui up for escaping work, but relents and leaves. Humiliated by the recent events, Xiaohui commits suicide by jumping from his company apartment unit. This segment is based on the spate of worker suicides in locations and facilities owned by Foxconn between 2010 and 2013.
Epilogue
Back in Shanxi, Xiaoyu attends an interview at a factory owned by Shengli Group, now under the management of Mrs. Jiao following her husband's death at the hands of Dahai. She chances across a public opera performance. The film ends with an opera actor posing the question, "Do you understand your sin?", ostensibly to the crowd watching.
