The literal translation of the title of this movie is: The Reformed Man.
This movie is the predecessor of the movie Zi Shou De Ai (1994) made almost a decade later. Like the latter, this movie is also based on the true story that really happened in real life, as in most of Chinese crime movies. In comparison to the latter, this movie is more realistic because back in the 1980's, the massive unemployment and underemployment problems had not appeared, and furthermore, the rapid economic expansion in the 1980's China is concentrated in labor intensive industries, instead of in the capital and technology intensive industries currently taking shape in China, so that there was opportunities for reformed convicts. Very unfortunately, that era is probably gone forever.