Under the Light (2023) User Reviews

Zhang Yimou's bright glitzy visuals can't save a run-of-the-mill crime story with obvious dialogue that gives everything away

[ObsessiveCinemaDisorder · 5/10 · 6 December 2023]

Under the Light is a modern crime drama from Zhang Yimou, director of Hero, The Great Wall and Shadow.

After a disastrous bus bombing incident in the fictional city of Jingang, police officer Su Jianling, son of Mayor Zheng Gang, conducts a crime investigation with the help of his ex-girlfriend and fellow officer Li Huilin. The clues lead towards rich businessman Li Zhitian, an associate of Zheng Gang, uncovering a bigger conspiracy.

Director Zhang Yimou unleashes his trademark color play, gorgeously dressing the city of Chongqing into a neo-noir neon cityscape punch-drunk with an array of bright fluorescents, mirror surfaces, and lens flares. All that visual intrigue, however, is wasted by the on-the-nose dialogue that gives everything away, erroneously placing the audience one step ahead of its story.

Chen Yu's script doesn't trust the audience enough to follow through the intended convoluted plot. It was intriguing in the first half and then progressively loses momentum with the characters explaining everything away and it all immediately becomes routine. All the moral murkiness created from the bright Blade Runner-like visuals is wasted.

Full River Red, the last Zhang Yimou film released earlier this year also written by Chen Yu, had a lot more bite and wit, giving effective narrative twists and turns. Perhaps Zhang and Chen are more confident working in the historical action genre as their grasp of crime film tropes seem greener.

All in all, I'd rather watch Full River Red one more time.

Mr Zhang detective movie

[ryanmo-35178 · 7/10 · 15 November 2023]

The previous movie by the director is pretty good so just hope that this one can be better. Some actors are the same but the plot is straightforward. The main theme is the conflict between police and the gangsters. Who can have more black evidence and then he can conquer the others and this is how black eat black. The main actor is a policeman who is hot blooded and want to arrest the bad guys. However, after the hardworking and sacrifice of his ex girlfriend, what he can get is that he is the adopted son of his policeman father. All the bad guys are caught and Imprisoned and that is what the title means to him.

A truly rape To female

[EasonVonn · 1/10 · 4 October 2023]

The biggest criticism of the entire film is that the portrayal of female characters is too one-sided as well as stereotypes, the only time Mrs. Zheng Gang in the film to create a hint of a less one-sided image or based on the reality of patriarchal social oppression is given, and finally oriented to the image is not enough to have a real female liberation strength, and even for this love and loyalty to the relationship all of a sudden lost.

Shooting techniques simply let people think Zhang Yimou is not AI instead. From beginning to end is Hollywood positive and negative, character facial close-up dialog, let a person in the film sleepy. Lens color and lens construction completely did not inherit Zhang Yimou's previous imitation of Kurosawa Akira regressed tremendously.

Suspense story in front of the storytelling is okay, but the more to the back of the more is the same old trick, a prediction of the outcome of the overturning of the emergence of a new result, the whole set of formulas. Not a very good storytelling technique.

Finally, when it comes to politics, the intentions of this movie are clear, aimed at the 00's needless to say, want to all rely on peers to set off is it hahahahahaha.

Good thriller, interesting characters, great acting, atmospheric

[jfungp · 9/10 · 28 October 2023]

I think different people will take different things from this movie. On one level, it's just a good thriller with twists and turns. On another level, it's a commentary on corruption with a bit of not-too-intrusive propaganda that it's being fought by the Chinese government and the Communist Party. But for me, the characters make the movie.

And even with the characters, some reviews focus on the vice mayor and the businessman and dismiss the police lead. But I disagree. We all bring our life experiences to whatever we're reading or watching. Jianming and his two other bespectacled partners in the police, his wanting to be a "true policeman for the people," that's the role model of the kind of society of I want to live in. I'm a nerdy guy with glasses myself. I don't need Hollywood's macho police, the police force that breaks rules, or a bunch of violence and guns, although this movie has a gun at the end and some violence.

I also related to the importance of family ties in the movie.

I'm a little hazy on the timeline of the murder victim, and think a repeat viewing at some point would improve my understanding.

A welcome movie set in modern-day China from Zhang Yimou. Loved it.

Zhang Yimou's 'Under the Light': The wait was worth it

[lfenerdj · 9/10 · 3 October 2023]

Finally, the long-awaited (at least by me) film by Zhang Yimou, 'Under the Light', which spent four years in the "freezer", has seen the light of day. And it didn't just see it but also claimed the top spot at the global box office in its opening weekend.

Was the wait worth it? The initial reviews from China weren't very encouraging - they pointed out imposed cuts and re-dubbed scenes, underdeveloped characters, and the tiring neon colors. However, I personally liked it a lot. We know that Zhang Yimou excels at creating unique aesthetic worlds, and he succeeded here as well. Naturally, the colors are unreal, but they create an unforgettable atmosphere in harmony with the film's main theme: the intertwining of corruption and family relationships. There is melodrama, there are exaggerations, there are villains, there are young, inspired idealistic cops, there are also Yimou girls. In fact, it has everything that once ignited my passion for cinema. Perhaps the initial version was bolder and more critical and hinted at involvement of higher government circles. But in the final version, which seems to have been cut around 30 minutes from a previously shown version, corruption remains at the level of deputy mayor and smaller-scale crimes within a friendly circle. But considering the not-so-distant history of censorship (and self-censorship) in my part of the world, we should be satisfied with what we got.

In some early reviews, 'Under the Light' was compared (in a negative way) to an earlier film on a similar theme and with a similar fate. 'The Shadow Play', directed by Ye Lou, from the next generation of Chinese filmmakers, was shown just before the completion of Under the Light, after also spending more than two years in the "freezer". The core of the story is quite similar - the symbiosis between a small-scale official and an unscrupulous businessman, disrupted by family (or romantic) relationships. The difference lies in the style - here it's more realistic, the story is told non-linearly with numerous flashbacks. I had the opportunity to see an uncensored version here, but the added parts weren't translated into English, so I couldn't understand how it was "more dangerous" than the officially approved version - the differences were minimal, with some dialogues being shortened. Probably, something similar happened with Zhang Yimou's film - some scenes seemed suspiciously short and abruptly cut.

In the end, I recommend both films. It's a matter of personal preference which one you'll like more - I lean towards 'Under the Light'.

P. S. Joan Chen, known e.g. From 'Twin Peaks', also appears in Zhang Yimou's film - in a small but powerful role, possibly shortened during editing.