Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
Directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Lei Jiayin, Ma Li, etc., and produced by the Film and Television Center of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the film "Article 20" was released nationwide at the beginning of the Lunar New Year and became a blockbuster film for this Spring Festival movie.
It's a multi-dimensional movie. From the perspective of life, this is a life film that reflects a mid-life crisis: Han Ming, who is in his forties, was suspended to the city procuratorate in order to let his son go to school in the city, but bad things happened one after another - his son Han Yuchen beat the son of the school leader and refused to apologize, and his wife Li Maojuan was indignant and then beat the school leader; Partner Lu Lingling happened to be his first love, and his wife suspected that the two were in an old relationship, and Han Ming covered up and justified him in order not to let his wife misunderstand him, but the result became darker and darker, and he couldn't explain it clearly.
From the perspective of the genre, this is a comedy: the movie incorporates a lot of comedy elements, and in the way of "comedy", which is suitable for all ages, lines, jokes and dramatic conflicts crammed the whole film.
From a social point of view, this is a serious realist film: under the shell of comedy, it directly points to serious judicial issues and deep-seated display of social values in gags: the title "Article 20" is taken from the provisions of Article 20 of the Criminal Law on justifiable defense, and the whole film also focuses on the hotly discussed law of justifiable defense, telling the simple expectations of the people for fairness and justice and the efforts made by the judiciary and procuratorial organs to safeguard fairness and justice.
Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
Throughout the film, the "three degrees" of fairness and justice are gripping and thought-provoking: the prosecutor's dedication to pursuing fairness and justice; people's perception of fairness and justice; The impact of fairness and justice on the lives of the parties.
On the one hand, the people have the most simple expectations for fairness and justice, and on the other hand, the judicial organs, including the procuratorial organs, respond to the needs of the people, update the judicial concept, activate the dormant justifiable defense clauses, and strive to maintain fairness and justice in handling cases.
The prosecutor's dedication to fairness and justice.
There is no doubt that under the hidden gag comedy shell, the real core of the movie is: the story of grassroots young prosecutors Han Ming and Lu Lingling withstanding many resistances, tracing back to the source and restoring the truth of the case, and guarding fairness and justice.
I don't know how hard it is. Just like a classic line in the movie: All the right things have a price, but you can't stop doing it just because there is a price.
is also as the protagonist Han Ming said: "The 56,681 words in the Criminal Law are all about fairness and justice." However, the realization of fairness and justice is not achieved overnight, and to truly let the fairness and justice in the legal provisions fall into each specific case, it requires the perseverance of law enforcement and judicial personnel. The difficult process of determining legitimate defense in the movie is the process of prosecutors Han Ming and Lu Lingling's persistent pursuit of fairness and justice.
Article 20 tells about three cases, the main line of which is the case of Wang Yongqiang's assassination of Liu Wenjing. In order to treat their children, Wang Yongqiang's family owed the village tyrant Liu Wenjing a loan shark. In order to collect debts, Liu Wenjing killed Wang Yongqiang's dog, tied Wang Yongqiang at the door with a dog chain, and repeatedly **Wang Yongqiang's deaf and dumb wife, and even threatened to use a knife**. In fear and despair, Wang Yongqiang picked up a pair of scissors and stabbed indiscriminately, causing the village tyrant to be seriously injured and later died.
Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
For Han Ming and Lu Lingling, who have rich experience in handling cases, it is not difficult to see that the case is of a legitimate defensive nature. However, one of the major difficulties in justifiable defense lies in the fact that it is easy to say, but it is difficult to prove, identify, and change traditional concepts.
Difficult to prove: The most direct evidence of Wang Yongqiang's legitimate defense could not be found - the knife that Liu Wenjing put in the car.
Difficult to identify: Liu Wenjing, who did evil, died after being stabbed, and the deceased involved the interests of many people, and his family members were village tyrants who were very good at making trouble, and they besieged the door of the procuratorate in the name of "expressing their demands", bringing great pressure to the procuratorial organs in handling cases.
It is difficult to change traditional concepts: In the past, due to the constraints of ideology and the influence of judicial inertia, the justifiable defense clause in the criminal law was basically in a state of slumber. Out of traditional concepts such as "whoever can make trouble is justified", "whoever is killed or injured is justified", and "killing pays for life", as well as from the perspective of calming things down, most of the similar cases are prosecuted and sentenced for crimes such as intentional injury and intentional homicide. In order to break out of the judicial inertia of the past and truly make a decision not to prosecute, we need to innovate at the conceptual level and have great courage to challenge tradition.
The process of overcoming this "trilemma" is precisely the process of highlighting the procurator's persistent pursuit of fairness and justice.
For Lu Lingling, her persistent pursuit of fairness and justice is reflected in her refusal to give up on the direct evidence of legitimate defense (the knife Liu Wenjing hid in the car).
In fact, in the narrative at the beginning of the movie, only Wang Yongqiang's confession has the existence of the knife. Even for Lu Lingling herself, she was not 100% sure that the knife really existed, but because this knife played a key role in determining Wang Yongqiang's legitimate defense, Lu Lingling never gave up looking for this knife.
Objectively speaking, in the absence of circumstantial evidence, Lu Lingling can completely think that this is just a lie told by Wang Yongqiang in order to exonerate himself. In this way, it is enough to go through the procedure to prosecute Wang Yongqiang. But Lu Lingling did not do this, even in the face of the pressure of Liu Wenjing's relatives besieging the procuratorate, the time limit for handling the case is about to be exceeded, and the relevant parties directly demand that the prosecution be carried out as soon as possible, she has never given up.
In the end, in order to find witnesses who could prove the existence of the knife, Lu Lingling was also disqualified from handling the case because Wang Yongqiang's wife was injured by jumping off the building. But even so, she did not regret it, and continued to silently support her partner Han Ming to handle the case fairly. It was precisely because of her persistent pursuit and with the support of all parties that she finally found the knife and found the key evidence to determine legitimate defense.
Compared with Lu Lingling's persistence, Han Ming's persistence is a process of change.
When handling Zhang Guisheng's case, Han Ming paid more attention to the application of the law and the reference to previous precedents, and focused on not making mistakes. When handling Wang Yongqiang's case, because Zhang Guisheng was dissatisfied with the original result of the case, he died unexpectedly on the way to petition, Hao Xiuping jumped off the building in despair because he was worried that her husband would be sentenced heavily, and his son was almost detained for stopping campus violence.
It is precisely after this kind of thinking that at the hearing, although the leaders in charge repeatedly reminded that in the past, such cases were to be prosecuted, and the relevant hearing representatives also had different opinions on the determination of legitimate defense, Han Ming still insisted on his own opinion, holding that Wang Yongqiang was justified defense and should not be prosecuted. In the end, his opinion was supported by the leadership and interested parties. Wang Yongqiang was found to be justified in self-defense and acquitted.
From the beginning, Han Ming was inclined to prosecute Wang Yongqiang as soon as possible and complete the task of handling the case, to firmly affirming that Wang Yongqiang was justified in self-defense, which not only did not affect the image of the prosecutor's persistent pursuit of fairness and justice, but also appeared more real. Because, the process of pursuing fairness and justice itself has a process of advancing with the times.
From a small point of view, the film uses the ideological change of Han Ming, a front-line prosecutor handling the case, to vividly reflect the changes in the judicial organs' standards for determining "legitimate defense" - closer to the original intent of the legislation, immersive into the defender's position, no longer too harsh on the defender, fully consider the urgency and nervousness of the defender when facing illegal infringement, and prevent the judge of whether the defense behavior exceeds the limit with calm, rational, objective and accurate standards under normal circumstances after the fact.
From a general point of view, the transformation of "Han Ming" is a microcosm of the change in the procuratorate's concept of handling cases - under the guidance of the idea of the rule of law, the procuratorial organs handled the Kunshan anti-homicide case, the Fujian Zhao Yu case, the Laiyuan anti-homicide case, the Hangzhou Shengchunping case and other socially influential legitimate defense cases handled accurately in accordance with the law, and activated the justified defense clause in the criminal law with fresh case-handling practice (Article 20). Undoubtedly, this is a powerful interpretation of the progress of the rule of law, and it is also a vivid footnote to the judicial handling of cases that keeps pace with the times and upholds fairness and justice.
The impact of fairness and justice on the lives of the parties.
Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
Where does the authority of the law come from? From the most simple emotional expectations of the common people. This expectation is the expectation of fairness and justice. As director Zhang Yimou said: "Chinese people are full of love and warmth in their bones, and they have natural ancient ways and warm intestines." The profound heritage of Chinese cultural inheritance makes every Chinese have a simple understanding of fairness and justice. ”
In response to this expectation, judicial personnel need to think from the perspective of ordinary people, what does a judicial case mean to the lives of the parties? How can we make ordinary people feel fairness and justice?
We are not dealing with cases, but other people's lives. "A few years ago, the experience of a front-line prosecutor in handling a case has now become the consensus of many judicial personnel.
In "Article 20", such an understanding was said through prosecutor Lu Lingling, which resonated with his partner Han Ming in the movie, and also caused many moviegoers to think outside the movie.
Indeed, taking the three cases in the film as an example, which case is not the life of the parties?
In the case of Wang Yongqiang, the main line of the movie, if Wang Yongqiang is sentenced to intentional injury or even intentional homicide, it is conceivable that Hao Xiuping, who is already on the verge of despair, has lost the last ray of hope and is likely to commit suicide. With their dad in jail and mom gone, what about their disabled daughter? The family is likely to be broken and torn apart. Their lives may have been completely ruined because of this case.
In the case of Zhang Guisheng handled by Han Ming, the bus driver Zhang Guisheng stopped the hooligans from molesting the female passengers, and after being beaten by the hooligans, he resisted and injured the hooligans. After being indicted, he was sentenced to three years in prison for intentional injury. After being released from prison, although Han Ming gave him a lot of help and helped him find a job, Zhang Guisheng was still unconvinced and felt that he was not wrong, so he kept petitioning, hoping to rehabilitate himself, and finally died in a car accident on the way to petition. Zhang Guisheng's daughter was heartbroken, and at the same time sent a soul torture to Han Ming: "Prosecutor, do you think my father is really wrong?" ”
For Zhang Guisheng's father and daughter, did this case affect their lives?
In the case of Han Ming's son Han Yuchen, because of stopping school bullying, Han Yuchen injured the son of the director of education and faced the risk of filing a case with public security. Once the case is filed, Han Yuchen may no longer be able to study at the key school where he is located. More importantly, once the case is filed, it will affect Han Yuchen's view of right and wrong and sense of justice that has accompanied him throughout his life. For Han Yuchen, this seemingly small case actually affects his life.
The film shows people through these cases that ordinary people may encounter: not only big cases, but every small case, falling on specific parties, will affect their lives for them. At this time, whether they can feel fairness and justice in the judicial handling of cases is very important to them. This is the impact of fairness and justice on the lives of the parties - it can not only destroy a family and a person's life, but also help a family and a person grow towards the sun.
It is precisely because of seeing the huge impact of handling cases on the lives of the parties in the Zhang Guisheng case and his son's experience that Han Ming, a self-proclaimed experienced prosecutor, began to truly pursue and think about the original intent of the legislation and the value of the law, no longer confined to abstract legal provisions, but began to pay attention to the parties to the vivid case, no longer entangled in past judgments and judicial practices, but began to reflect on what is the "right thing", starting from the people's most simple expectations for fairness and justice. Thinking about what kind of prosecutors the people need and what kind of fairness and justice they need, they finally broke the routine and made a bold decision on legitimate defense.
people's perception of fairness and justice;
Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
In order to improve the people's perception of fairness and justice, it is not enough to just handle cases fairly, and there are still many things to be done to make them truly feel fairness and justice.
The process of the procurator's pursuit of fairness and justice in the film also reflects the procuratorial case-handling concept put forward by the Supreme People's Procuratorate Party Group - through the performance of procuratorial duties and handling cases, to ensure the realization of fairness and justice in substance, to make fairness and justice better and faster in procedure, and to make the people feel, feel, and feel fairness and justice in terms of effect, so that the quality, efficiency, and effect of procuratorial case handling are organically unified in fairness and justice.
Substantively, by activating Article 20 of the Criminal Law, procurators make decisions on legitimate defense, ensuring the realization of fairness and justice in substance, so that the people can feel fairness and justice; Procedurally, procurators follow legal procedures to handle cases, race against time to improve the chain of evidence with the public security organs, and accept supervision from all walks of life through special procedures for public hearings, to ensure that fairness and justice are better and faster in terms of procedures, so that the people can feel fairness and justice; In terms of effect, procurators fully explain the law and reason in public hearings, integrating law, reason, and emotion, so that the people can feel fairness and justice. These efforts to pursue fairness and justice also reflect the basic value pursuit of procuratorial performance and case handling in the new era and new journey - "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
Stills from the movie "Article 20". (*Douban).
Fairness and justice, four simple words, for the people, but there is a thousand weights. **The general secretary has repeatedly stressed the need to strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case, and has called on all judicial organs to improve their work closely around this goal. In order to respond to the people's most simple emotional expectations for fairness and justice, the judiciary has diligently pursued and worked hard to move forward.
Article 20 embodies the two-way rush of fairness and justice - the expectations of the people and the efforts of the judiciary through the daily life of the people, which is the artistic expression of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "handling every case with high quality and efficiency".
*: Fangyuan Magazine.