Full River Red

When an ambassador is found stabbed to death, the Prime Minister "Qin Hui" (Jiayin Lei) orders an immediate investigation to be headed by his director "He Li" (Yi Zhang) and his deputy "Wu Yichun" (the quite charismatic Yunpeng Yue). Pretty quickly, this investigation has seen the killing of the Captain of the guard and his replacement by the young "Sun Jun" (Jackson Lee) who has alighted on a potential culprit in "Zhang Da" (Teng Shen). The Prime Minister has given the young man and his prisoner just two hours to get to the bottom of the killing and to retrieve a letter thought to have been contained in an ornate leather purse. For much of the first ninety minutes, this is quite a cleverly interwoven and characterful whodunit. Who to trust, who is behind the plot - what is contained in the letter? Who has read the letter? What might the beautiful courtesans know of the mystery? It's quickly paced and quite entertaining. Sadly, though, the last forty-five minutes rather falls away. The characters all start to trip over themselves and the intrigue stops being that and starts to become a bit of a farce leading to an ending that was really weak and disappointing. It looks great though, the production standards and costumes are professional and colourful - it's just an hour too long - and that's without counting the endless pre-title production credits!

You know, while the mixed reviews had me a little worried this wouldn't live up to my hype, my faith never wavered. It seems my conviction was justified, because my goodness is this a masterpiece! So good in fact, that I missed the last direct bus back home because I was so engrossed in discussing it afterwards - if my misfortune is not an endorsement, then I don't know what is!

If you've seen Hero and House of Flying Daggers, then you can know what to expect from the plot here: a semi-historical account of a band of usurpers, plotting with wild abandon against tyrannical authority, inside a twisty plot as loyalties shift in constant flux, amounting to a grand political stance as reality reveals itself to be far too complicated for any one person to fully grasp. Yet Zhang no longer seems to care as much for spectacle as he used to, because while there's for sure still action here - and my god is it brutal, displaying the sheer ruthlessness of Chinese history in all its glory - it's no longer nearly as stylish as what he once revelled in. Which works to the film's favour, as it means it can purely focus on the central enigma it strives to unravel, with the character's far more likeable and their motivations far easier to digest because they're no longer so frustratingly aloof - Jackson Yee is the last remnant of this, but it works to brilliant effect as his 'straightmanness' violently clashes with all the other absurdities he gets swept up in.

Instrumental to this is the comedy, which laces the mind-blowing screenplay with wit at every turn, each revelation and each despair underscored by a relentless pursuit of humour that envelopes the intrigue inside a bundle of perpetual laughs. And when you have an audience as engrossed in the humour as yourself, it all becomes that much more endearing. Zhang isn't unfamiliar to comedy, as he's been experimenting with it since Red Sorghum; it just took comedic geniuses like Shen Teng and Zhang Yi to fully realise their potential by imbuing the charming jokes with their own remarkably enchanting screen presence. Also, best Shen Teng performance? Because while he's as hilarious as I knew he would be, he's also so effective at delivering the really quite moving drama, burdening himself with layers upon layers to become utterly mesmerising to witness. This may very well be Zhang's most entertaining piece; the fact that it's paired with his most slickly written and inventive - yet likewise emotionally charged and passionate - screenplay in recent years makes the experience all the better.