[Review] Full River Red (8.5/10)

 

Title - Full River Red
Production - Huanxi Media Group, Tianjin Maoyan Weying Media, Yixie (Qingdao) Film
Starring - Teng Shen, Jackson Yee, Zhang Yi, Yue Yunpeng, Lei Jiayin, Wang Jiayi, Pan Binlong, Yu Ailei, Guo Jingfei, Ou Hao, Wei Xiang, Lin Boyang
Writer - Chen Yu, Zhang Yimou
Director - Zhang Yimou
Release - 17 March 2023

As I am don't properly follow movies coming out of China, I saw the name Zhang Yimou and immediately thought I should catch this in the cinema. I tracked down its trailer first, and it was a horrible trailer that told me nothing of what the movie was about. Just as well. I'm going into this fresh.

The movie started as a comedy, not something I am familiar with from Zhang's previous work. But the comedy worked wonderfully and sucked me in to its world. The story started off as a con, and then became a mystery, and it was hilarious because the mystery stemmed from the con. I thought the writing was brilliant.

And every time the characters started walking, there's this song playing in the background that, the first time you heard it, it was jarring. But later on, every time the characters started walking, you couldn't imagine it without the song. It was brilliant.

The performances from the main cast were delicious. Because it was kind of a whodunnit throughout the first half, the movie kept me on a hook.

And later in the second half, the story revealed what it truly was. The tattoo was the first giveaway for me personally because I remembered studying this in primary school. And then I realized it was about a poem titled "Man Jiang Hong" - which essentially was the title. I thought it was brilliantly written and directed by Zhang. His characters were so great to follow because of the layers that Zhang kept peeling away.

Though I would say, perhaps all the walking back and forth got a bit too long to reach the end, and at the end, the way the army started chanting that I thought was a bit unrealistic and corny. But this was still a must-watch.