RED CORNER 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
2 :-( :-( for being too political in it's presentation
Cast: Richard Gere, Bai Ling, Bradley Whitford, Byron Mann Director: Jon Avnet Screenplay: Robert King, Ron Koslow
Who better than Richard Gere, to star in a movie which shouts political views against the Chinese Communist Regime? We know much of this to be true - the suppression of free speech, the unfairness of the judicial system, the misrepresentation and maltreatment of prisoners, the totalitarian nature of it all; but to make a movie about it when you're buddies with the Dalai Lama, well isn't that just a tincy wincy bit biased? If one wanted to explore the paranoid, unfair nature of the Chinese Government properly - make a documentary. But to entwine the political story line with the fanciful murder of a General's daughter (Jessey Meng), a framed business man (Gere) and then to finish it with a deep meaningful relationship with a Chinese lawyer (Bai Ling), is too much even for me.
I was expecting a love story, but instead I found murder and intrigue. It is difficult to believe that a powerful businessman would become the unwitting target of Chinese government officials. Nevertheless, anything is possible. Gere the businessman is accused of murdering the beautiful model Hong Ling, the daughter of a powerful Chinese official. Gere's character then goes through a round the mill sequence of maltreatment in prisons and numerous attempts on his life, all conveniently ignored by the 'evil' Chinese Government. I do not doubt that these cruel scenes are meant to raise anti-Chinese sentiment. However, when his initially pro-Chinese defence lawyer Shen Yuelin falls in love with him, then decides to speak against the corrupt Chinese judicial system - believability becomes a problem. This sinks to further melodrama when Gere gets mushy about Yuelin and sacrifices himself to protect her safety. This lies beyond my comprehension. They've only known each other for a week and they can't even communicate well with each other.
This problem with this movie lies in the fact that it can't make up it's mind whether to be a piece of anti-Chinese propaganda or a love story about one woman's belief in another man's innocence. The resulting effect is mixed feelings and odd moments. The attempt to combine the two ideas doesn't work well, especially when the acting isn't a highlight.
SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET does a better job at causing China to lose face in the eyes of the world. This movie merely pokes its tongue at the great eastern power, but doesn't give the viewer much more insight than that.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~bouclier/week/movies.html
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