Full River Red, directed by Zhang Yimou. Written by Zhang Yimou and Chen Yu. Starring Shen Teng and Jackson Yee. China, 159 minutes, IIB. Opens March 2. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Anyone who might consider themself an aficionado of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019), Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express (2017) or anything else from within that whodunit family will want to dive into Fifth Generation Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s Full River Red. Based loosely on a famous poem attributed to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) General Yue Fei, Zhang’s latest outing sees him return to the Chinese historical milieu he’s so fond of, this time mixing in a little of his screwball comedy A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009) for a genre mash-up likely to be well-received in light of the modest whodunit renaissance. The film also trades in themes dear to Zhang’s heart and which have cropped up frequently, particularly in his late-period work, from Hero (2002) to Shadow (2018) — ideas pivoting on loyalty, duty, honor and virtue as the only true counters to corruption.
Essentially unfolding over a single night in one location, Full River Red follows the antics of a pair of soldiers with disparate worldviews, levels of commitment to the emperor, and personal agendas when they’re paired up to solve a crime. On the eve of peace talks between the Jin and Song Dynasty delegates, the Jin envoy staying at the compound of Song Grand Chancellor Qin Hui (Lei Jiayin, 2019’s The Wandering Earth) turns up dead, and an important letter he was carrying to the emperor is gone. Qin’s right-hand man, He Li (Zhang Yi, 2022’s Home Coming), and He’s own right-hand man, Wu Yichun (Yue Yunpeng), charge the irreverent Zhang Da (popular comedian Shen Teng, 2021’s Hi, Mom) and the grave, golden-boy commander Sun Jun (TFBoys singer Jackson Yee) with getting to the bottom of the mystery in the hours before sunup, and ahead of Qin’s departure for the summit meeting. Their first, best lead is a dancer, Zither (newcomer Wang Jiayi), who entertained the envoy the night before and who, in fine murder-mystery fashion, has her own ulterior motives for helping Zhang and Sun. Zither’s secrets are just the tip of a conspiratorial iceberg.
Full River Red, directed by Zhang Yimou. Written by Zhang Yimou and Chen Yu. Starring Shen Teng and Jackson Yee. China, 159 minutes, IIB. Opens March 2. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Zhang and co-writer Chen Yu seem to be having a grand time diving into all the tropes expected of the traditional murder mystery, and revel in multiple red herrings, double crosses and last-minute reveals, while at the same time lacing the action with a cheekily anachronistic soundtrack of hard-rocked folk songs. Unfortunately, the dark comedy only occasionally lands (though, admittedly, it could play better in Putonghua), and despite the gorgeous day-for-night photography by Zhang’s regular cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding, there’s so much that’s visually familiar in Full River Red that it’s hard to shake the feeling that Zhang has reached the self-impersonation stage of his career.
The film is by no means bad: It’s well-produced and handsomely mounted in every aspect. It’s just that Full River Red is Zhang playing it safer than he ever has in his career, and allowing his aesthetic predilections to get the better of him, and be used in lieu of actual ideas and comment. The opening salvo — a crane shot following a squad of soldiers through the perfect grid of the imperial outpost — is stunning imagery to be sure, but it doesn’t take us anywhere. It doesn’t examine our common humanity in the way Ju Dou (1990), whose opulent color served the story about a voiceless woman, or The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), whose intimate documentary style detailing the search for justice in the shadow of a power imbalance, did. It’s just pretty, and no matter how thorny the mystery, pretty alone isn’t quite enough — especially from Zhang.