| “ | Nonsense! Who forces you to die? You're a human after all. Drunk again, right? | „ |
| ~ Bá Kiến beginning to manipulate Chí Phèo. |
| “ | You have to be tough and soft at times when working as an government official. | „ |
| ~ Bá Kiến to Village Mayor Cường; one of his most famous quotes. |
Bá Kiến is the main antagonist of Nam Cao's short story Chí Phèo as well as the movie Once Upon a Time in Vũ Đại Village/Làng Vũ Đại Ngày Ấy, a composite adaptation of Nam Cao's stories. He is the canton chief of the Vũ Đại village who is responsible for the titular Chí's descent into villainy.
In Once Upon a Time in Vũ Đại Village, he was portrayed by Mạnh Sinh.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Imprisoned Chí out of pure jealousy, ruining the latter's life and leading to the latter's descent into villainy. It had gotten so bad that Chí actually thought that being in prison was better than staying in the village and even told Kiến that maybe Chí should kill a few people so that Kiến could have him arrested again. When Chí finally found happiness with Thị Nở, she was forced to reject him on behalf of her aunt due to his bad reputation in the village, showing just how badly Kiến had ruined Chí's life that the latter had no chance to have a happy life anymore.
- When Chí returned to have his revenge on him, Kiến manipulated Chí into becoming his enforcer. Worse still, Chí wasn't his first victim, as he had done this with numerous people.
- Used Chí to eliminate his rivals while causing troubles for the Vũ Đại village.
- Allied with the French imperialists out of self-serving reasons, proving that he does not care about his fellow Vietnamese at all.
- Committed numerous shady activities with the French imperialists' help.
- Despite being jealous of Chí, he had an affair with Binh Chức's wife, making him a hypocrite. Whenever Binh Chức gave his wife money he received from his soldier career, she would give it to Kiến, thus Kiến secretly fed on Binh Chức's hard work.
- It's implied that he didn't treat his family as people, but as objects he was entitled to possess.
- When he saw the village's boys attracted to his fourth wife's beauty, he contemplated imprisoning them all like he did with Chí.
Exclusive to the film[]
- Forced Old Man Hạc to sell his garden to him so that he could build a villa.
- Conspired with Village Mayor Cường to silence Teacher Thứ for exposing their shady activities in the newspaper.
- Abused his servants, as shown when he called his servant Nhỡ useless for failing to convince Old Man Hạc to sell his garden for Kiến and threw wine at him before demanding him to go away.
- When Old Man Hạc committed suicide, which was to Kiến's fault to begin with, Kiến heartlessly told everyone who was visiting him to go home and took advantage of his death to extort money to allow burying him.
- Even after his death, his son, Village Mayor Cường, continued his evil legacy.
Trivia[]
- He's currently the only character in Vietnamese literature to be Pure Evil.
- Like Chí Phèo, Bá Kiến is considered to be an iconic figure in Vietnamese literature and fiction in general. He has since been considered a staple for a master manipulator, similar to Emperor Palpatine in America, another Pure Evil villain.
External Link[]
- Bá Kiến on the Villains Wiki