Red Corner Details

a Chinese or someone who knew a lot about China would enjoy the most

The movie strikes me by its very authentic way of drawing the real picture of China. Although there are some scenes showing the dark side of my country, I should not deny that they do exist in the real life. And they are not being biased on the USA side either as they did truthfully reveal the ugly face of the USA Embassy.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Guilty until proven innocent

This film catapults you straight into the heart of China, its Human Rights, Communist Political Attitudes and Arbitrary Legal System. When one considers the difficulty of filming in the People’s Republic of China, the cinematography is outstanding. The director, Jon Avnet captures all the atmosphere of intrigue, fear and terror of a state controlled legal system.

The opening plot follows the familiar one-night-stand in a foreign hotel, the murder of the beautiful lover and the arrest, in the morning, of the unsuspecting businessman who has just clinched a big communications deal with the Chinese authorities. There the stereotype ends abruptly.

Richard Gere is the accused, ‘guilty until proven innocent’ and gives a mature and stylish performance of a man, tried and condemned, with very little in the way of human rights, in a land where leniency is offered only to the repentant. Early on, we are hopelessly convinced that the hero will die with a bullet in the back of his head.

Whether he does or does not is entirely in the hands of his legal representative, a young and beautiful, enchanting Chinese attorney (sensitively played by Bai Ling) who, as it emerges, was a child of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Influenced by the childhood scars she bears, of betrayal and loss of a father’s trust, she is slowly persuaded to champion the condemned’s human rights and to unravel the chaos and condemnation of a courtroom convinced of guilt.

Outstanding suspense with an end seen through salty tears.