Bá Kiến - Fandom - Pure Evil Wiki

Pure Evil

Full Name

Kiến

Alias

Lý Kiến (formerly)

Bá KiếnMr. Bá

Origin

Chí Phèo

Allies

His four wives

Lý CườngChí Phèo (formerly)French imperialists

Powers / Skills

Wealth

Mastery of manipulationCharismaIntimidation

Goals

Turn Chí Phèo into his enforcer.

Eliminate his rivals through Chí Phèo (both succeeded).Force the Teacher Thứ to stop exposing his shady activities.Buy Old Man Hạc's garden to build a villa (Once Upon a Time in Vũ Đại Village; both failed).

Moral Event Horizon

Imprisoning Chí out of pure jealousy for being with one of his mistresses, kick-starting his descent into villainy.

Ruining Chí's life by turning him into his enforcer to kill his rivals for his own personal gain.

Kill Count

Numerous (indirectly)

Worst Crimes

Incrimination

Abuse of powerPsychological abuseMass murder (indirectly)Mass property damageConspiracy

Type of Villain

Manipulative Elitist

“	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 Lý Cường; one of his most famous quotes.

“	Chí Phèo: I want to be good.Bá Kiến: Oh, that's great! Everyone would be better off if you do.Chí Phèo: But I can't! Who the hell lets me?	„
~ Bá Kiến and Chí Phèo's last words to each other before their deaths.

Bá Kiến is the main antagonist of Nam Cao's short story Chí Phèo as well as the film Once Upon a Time in Vũ Đại Village, 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. A cruel and heartless man, he works with the French imperialists to throw anyone he dislikes to prison for the pettiest reasons possible, and manipulates those who have enmities with him into becoming his enforcers to eliminate his rivals. He is known for his manipulation and charisma which make everyone else in the village fear him. He is also the father of Lý Cường and the arch-nemesis of Teacher Thứ, Old Man Hạc and Chí Phèo.

In Once Upon a Time in Vũ Đại Village, he was portrayed by the late Mạnh Sinh.

Contents

• 1 What Makes Him Pure Evil?
  • 1.1 Exclusive to the film
• 2 Trivia
• 3 External Links

What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]

• He 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.
• His affability isn't genuine, since he only act affable to manipulate people and to fabricate the image of a benevolent leader to Vũ Đại Village people.
• When Chí returned to have his revenge on him, he manipulated Chí into becoming his enforcer. Worse still, Chí wasn't his first victim, as he had done this with numerous people.
• While he let Chí live despite being able to ask the French imperialists to execute him, this was only out of pragmatism since Chí was still useful to him.
• He used Chí to eliminate his rivals while causing troubles for the Vũ Đại village.
• He allied with the French imperialists out of self-serving reasons, proving that he does not care about his fellow Vietnamese at all. He also show no sign of loyalty to the French imperialists.
• He 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.
• While he got stabbed by Chí numerous times and died in a gruesome way, it's not played for sympathy, but instead satisfaction due to all of the crimes he had done.
  • While he did throw some money to the ground for Chí, this was only so that Chí would go away. He was also shown to be annoyed and angered by Chí asking him for money numerous times.
  • He also mocked Chí's decision to become a good guy.
  • The village people were shown to be ecstatic about his death, and stating that they will feel sad toward anyone but his and Chí's deaths, and no one mourned him, with his funeral being made only out of formality.
• Overall, there's nothing that can justify any of his actions, as he was only motivated by petty envy, jealousy and greed.

Exclusive to the film[]

• He forced Old Man Hạc to sell his garden to him so that he could build a villa.
• He conspired with Lý Cường to silence Teacher Thứ for exposing their shady activities in the newspaper.
• He 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, he 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, Lý Cường, continued his evil legacy.

Trivia[]

• He, alongside the magistrate from Who Cares if you Survive or Die, are the only two characters in Vietnamese literature to be Pure Evil.
• While it's currently unknown if his Cậu Vàng counterpart would also count as Pure Evil or not, it's likely he would since he's worse than his original counterpart, since he force Bà Ba to marry him against her will.

External Links[]

• Bá Kiến on the Villains Wiki