The Mannequin

This documentary visually subverts most fundamentally both Western medicine and Western metaphysical systems. In one shocking sequence after another, it portrays the cutting open of bodies and the removal of lungs, gallbladders and stomachs on camera, with patients observed, in the same shot, as fully conscious. A few minutes later, the patients sit up, are shown the removed organ in a pan, smile, talk, eat, and applaud the doctors who applaud them in turn. Since this action is in long-shot, without interruption, it is authentic, hence overwhelming. More significantly, it reveals an entirely non-meta-physical attitude toward body and organs; and a tolerance by Chinese television audiences of visual taboos for which we are altogether unprepared. For us, operations still involve the violation of what are subconsciously considered inviolable body surfaces and the spilling of real blood; and many remain affected by an atavistic dread when confronted by such sights.