The First Error Step (1980)

Growing up without parents, Ma Sha has always worked as a lookout in a red-light district. When he is imprisoned for manslaughter following a customer's death, he breaks out of jail but is soon caught again and sent to a correctional institution on Orchid Island. Guided by his former elementary classmate, who is now a penal officer, Ma finally repents his wild past, writing down his stories and eventually publishing them.