This is credited as the first movie to bring a more realistic sense to Taiwanese cinema. It stars an actual ex-con(Sha Ma aka Tattooer Ma)) who tells his life story and all the terrible twists and turns involved in it plus some very cinematic flourishes to spice things up of course. It becomes a men-in-prison movie for a while and then ultimately becomes a tale about trying really hard to do the right thing even though life keeps throwing shit at you. A notch above your typical exploitation film in that it has a clear message and viewpoint even if that message is a pretty simple one of "don't be such a fuck-up but even if you are it's never too late" and starring the actual guy who went through these ordeals helps a lot. A rare super serious non-kung fu Taiwanese film. AKA THE FIRST ERROR STEP
The version I watched of this, which is also the version someone uploaded to YouTube here, has some minor audio issues but they don't seem to hinder the plot much:
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