Young filmmaker sheds light on those living on the margins in account of student's days before campus murders
Two years ago, a Yunnan University student majoring in biochemistry snapped.
Ma Jiajue, 23, bludgeoned four of his roommates to death with a hammer, stuffing their bodies in a dormitory cupboard.
The killings were considered to be among the most gruesome campus crimes in the country and drew attention to the rising incidence of violence in mainland universities.
They also form the basis of a new low-budget feature film written, produced and directed by Qingdao University student Lu Hongfeng. The film dramatises the five days before Ma went on a killing spree, with flashbacks of his troubled relations with classmates.
Ma grew up in an poor village in Guangxi, and when he arrived at university, he was shunned and humiliated by his classmates. He went on the run after the murders, but was caught three weeks later and put to death in May 2004.