Why did Vincent kill?
I'm confused as to why Vincent killed shrimp boy, and did Uncle know Vincent killed his nephew?
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MovieChat Forums > Thief (2006) Discussion > Why did Vincent kill?
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Love the sig, Jx.
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Vincent killed "shrimp boy" (where did that nickname come from, btw?) because he knew about his Parkinson's and was going to expose it to his uncle (another BTW - anyone else notice the implication that he was actually Vincent's father and not just an uncle? Dad/Uncle said something like "You still think of yourself as a paper son?").
Anyway, Uncle was going to kill Vincent because he knew Vincent had killed the kid.
I don't really think he was implying that Vincent was his real son. A paper son is basically a term for an illegal immigrant for Chinese men. Here, I got this info on paper sons from a site.
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What are "Paper Sons"?
Jue family people may have names like Lee, Tang, Yee, and Wong because they came to the United States as "paper sons", i.e., as hypothetical sons of some perhaps hypothetical father. Why was this necessary? Read on for your enlightenment.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Geary Act of 1892, and subsequent acts of Congress prohibited the legal immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. There were loopholes in these laws that allowed a very limited number immigrants. Congress thought that there were already too many Chinese in the United States in 1882, comprising .002 percent of the population (that's 2 out of every 100,000 persons -- do the math).
The Great Fire (a.k.a. Great Earthquake) of 1906 in San Francisco destroyed the Federal building housing all of the official records of the U.S. Government, including the immigration records. In other words, there were no records of what Chinese who were legally here (having immigrated prior to 1882) as a result of the Great Fire.
What does this have to do with anything? Congress did not want members of the predominantly male Chinese population to have carnal knowledge of white women (can you spell "M-I-S-C-E-G-E-N-A-T-I-O-N"? The state of California finally nullified its Anti-Miscegenation Law of 1906 prohibiting Chinese from marrying non-Chinese in 1948). The Chinese men who were in the United States prior to 1882 were permitted to return to China, marry, produce children, and bring their sons back to the United States. (There were restrictions on Chinese women immigrating to the United States; Congress may have feared the Chinese reproducing in large numbers.)
"Paper Sons" came to the United States bearing papers documenting them as sons of Chinese who had returned to China to marry and produce children. (See the NARA's page on "Paper Sons and Coaching Letters" for more on "Paper Sons".)
In other words, the "Paper Sons" were illegal aliens.
This is one of the reasons some of the old Chinese are very secretive about their personal history. They were afraid of getting caught as illegal aliens, and coming to this country illegally was shameful.
I personally know of one person who asked her father about certain facts regarding their immigration to this country, and who received a very sharp response, "People would shoot you for asking such questions in the old days!" Of course, this was said to her in Chinese. Her father did not shoot her; she stopped asking about those certain facts regarding their immigration to this country.
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Just so you know, the "shrimp boy" or Uncle's nephew was Billy. They said his name about five times in the last episode.
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"Why does Bush think Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?"
"Because he has the receipt."
I see, thanks for the info on the paper son business.
share I still find it odd that he said it "You still refer to yourself as a 'paper son'", right after the hitman called him Uncle. Anyway, wouldn't this just mean that he really is his Uncle, but really raised him, like a father? The way I read previous posts on this topic, people seem to think that it was really his father, but for some reason he still calls him Uncle. I don't see why that would be the case. This is a very confusing topic.
I was also confused why he tried to kill the hitman. I really hate that whole plot. It really didn't have much at all to do with the rest of the show.
War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.
I think it's one of those things where the term is used for people that are older and are particularly close. Like in my family, my mom makes us call all her Filipino friends (if they're older) "Tita" or "Tito." Or rather, maybe "uncle" is used kind of like how "godfather" is used in mobs.
I'm not sure why he said "You still refer to yourself as a paper son," either. Maybe if a second season happens, they'll delve into Vincent's relationship with him. It could just be that he didn't like how Vincent still feels he owes so much to him (hence emphasis on "I failed you, Uncle") and/or that he didn't like how it implies that their relationship exists just because he was trying to get to America...that it's evolved to much more than just a paper son relationship. Vincent was probably very close to Uncle and that's why it took a lot to kill him.
Was I the only one feeling that the Uncle was gonna kill Vincent ever since the phone call? Then akward hug that normally I would of chalked to them being both males and too macho to hug, but then I thought 'why?'. And then the specific line about being a paper son cinched it for me. The second I heard that for some reason I was like 'duck vincent, duck.' Something was off about it, felt too random for me.
shareVincent killed Billy ("Shrimp Boy") because either A.) He knew that Billy was about to kill him, or B.) because Billy knew about his illness, and possibly because he might tell Uncle about it. We can only guess the exact reason, but it was most likely one of those.
As for Uncle trying to kill Vincent, again we can only guess, but it was obviously because A.) his illness and/or his "failure" made him a disgrace, or B.) he sensed that Vincent killed Billy, and maybe even felt that Vincent would try to kill Uncle himself.
And we know why Vincent killed Uncle - it was self defense. But knowing Vincent, he was probably planning to kill Uncle already, which Uncle may have sensed.
That cop gave Uncle his card, and said he had info on the killer. The cop also said that the he knew that the bullet that killed Roz, came from the same gun that killed Billy. So, I'm assuming that Uncle called the cop, and the cop told him, and he figured out that it was Vincent that killed Billy. Also, you could notice that Uncle detected Vincent acting funny around him, and that also added suspicion.
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Billy had already told the uncle in a phonecall that vincent had an illness that was affecting his work and the uncle told him to do what needed to be done (basically told him to kill vincent),
then the uncle came to kill vincent because of the parkisons that would make him a useless hitman but mostly because of what happened to billy
I found this aspect of the show very interesting. I'd like to have known more about them. I like that Will's character wasn't just a bad guy.
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