RED CORNER
WenQing
Written by : Robert King
Directed by : John Avnet
Main cast : Richard Gere (Jack Moore) and Bai Ling (Shen Yulin)
Length : 120 min approx
Rating : ***
WALLS WILL FALL
Here's another movie all about the American fascination (mixed with fear, and uncertainty) with Asia... and this time it's the new superpower and future giant Red China. The Chinese translation of RED CORNER written on the poster (and you can see it was translated from English to Mandarin and not the other way around) is hong se jiao luo, which literally means red-coloured corner. Even though this little trip up is kind of funny, and it brings a grin to the face of even people with halting Mandarin like myself... the film is pretty good if you give it a chance. It actually avoids most of the normal cliches and stereotypes, and doesn't over-romanticise China.
Richard Gere is Jack Moore, an executive from an American satellite TV company trying to strike a deal with the Chinese Radio Television and Film Ministry. Understandably, some people (hiding in shadows it is convenient to lurk in) don't want the Yankees' television shows in conservative and closed-door China. Moore gets framed for the murder of a model Hong Ling (who happens to be the daughter of a big time army officer) and gets tried in the Chinese court (where people are all speaking Mandarin) and his rights sort of get thrown out the window. With the America embassy's hands tied by diplomatic bonds, Moore has got to figure out who framed him, how to plead his innocence in the Chinese court (pleading innocence displays unrepentant behaviour!) and to convince his lawyer (Bai Ling) to believe him and help him investigate.
It's not your run-of-the-mill story line, and it's not the most exciting thing in the world (even though it does move faster than THE LAST EMPEROR), but I think the action and the plot of the film are secondary to the big huge juicy American moral in the background.
What I believe I saw was a story about walls built around lives, around personalities and around one's freedom. At the beginning of the film we get Bai Ling's voice-over about her grandmother's wise words... that the bamboo grows near the waters, waiting for the wind to touch it. In the same way, Bai Ling has a past... watching her father being tortured during the Cultural Revolution and never questioning the shaky legitimacy of the cruelties. Moore has lost his family in a car accident, and he builds a wall to shield him from the pain... he delves into the comfort of numbness and gets away with minimal grief. And most of all, there's a wall that runs around China from the outside world. And somehow, with Gere and Bai Ling combatting the whole system together, there's an inherent message that walls will fall, that things will change... and of course, the winds will touch the bamboos.
I know it sounds a little too mushy, which is the normal politically correct American way of seeing and portraying things that are outside their geographical boundaries. China has always represented (in recent years) something of an enigma to unravel and to resolve... but most of all to come to terms with in some new globalised world. RED CORNER doesn't over-reach itself in trying to solve the puzzle, but offers some kind of hope... that in a small way change is blowing into the Forbidden City and that small victories are part of some larger scale movement.
Of course RED CORNER makes mistakes... it gets sentimental in the end, and seems to thrive on copying some scenes from famous movies. We have one scene where Gere and Bai Ling are trapped in a car with other cars blocking them from exiting an alley. Then an assassin comes striding down to try to shoot them. It feels like CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, only
those bad guys were shooting missiles at the cars. Another scene is Bai Ling and Gere at the airport before he boards his private jet to fly home... it feels like CASABLANCA... but it serves its purpose. RED CORNER milks the subject for what it's worth and I almost feel silly that I wasn't detached enough to not feel along with the movie. Gere is in his trademark detached acting... although the reviewers in America seem to call it "Primal Gere". But Bai Ling is a true stand-out performace. She doesn't fall into the old painful stereotype of China girl with broken English and shy and exotic batting of eyelids. She's gutsy, strong-willed, bright and filled with a personality that you don't often get in films portraying China. She's come a long tway from being the token female on THE CROW (she was that mystic weird sister of the bad guy who got pecked to bits by the crow... remember?).
All in all, even though RED CORNER slows a little at bits, and I think it didn't make use of enough of the Chinese landscape for filming, it gets the spot I believe it was aiming for. It hits the walls that separate China and America, positing some kind of hope for the future. Bai Ling says to Gere at the close of the movie, that he will always have a family across the world. It's touching stuff, and I liked it, even though in real life a bit too many political and diplomatic obstacles get in the way.
Give it a shot.
The Flying Inkpot's Rating System
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
Read other movie reviews at The Flying Inkpot.Other film reviews by other writers can also be obtained from the InkVault through key word searches.
Explore the Flying Inkpot
They're Alive!
Concert Reviews
Bit deadish:
Other Resources at The Flying InkpotHome
