Bao lie wu sheng

"Bao lie wu sheng" (or "Wrath Of Silence") is one of the best crime mystery films I've seen in a long time. It does take its time telling its story, and the first hour confused me a bit because of the varying story lines, but in the end, they all came together in a satisfying way. Another thing "Wrath Of Silence" is worth the price of admission for is the wide, breathtaking cinematography of the untamed, craggy desert and mountains adorning the landscape. You can practically feel the despair in the unforgiving tundra. I did question the reality of one man successfully taking on a small army of office thugs by himself, but then again, that does seem to be a common trope in Asian films.

The story is basically about a dumb man who seeks his missing son at all costs based on an inner faith. In the course of this search, he ends up facing a powerful owner of a mining corporation. I did not really like this movie. There is some lack of logic in some parts. At one point, I had to turn on the Quick Play mode to speed up its end. It's a bit slow and tiring. If someone asks me whether I recommend it or not my answer is NO. I do not recommend this movie.

Hurray, the first good film of this year's festival! A genuinely unusual take on that old chestnut, the 'psycho looking for his missing kid' flick, but used to interrogate the iniquities of contemporary Chinese society (without anyone involved in the production gettinh killed), as a mute miner – left behind by the rapid pace of progress – engages in a bleak, apparently hopeless quest that's punctuated by moments of dark comedy and bone-crunching action (there's a lot of him just kicking people really hard).

The final shot could have used a bit of work, but the ending is otherwise superb, a fitting capper to a film with a few rough edges (cartoonish villainy, an opening that's more confusing than intriguing, a little mid-section bagginess) but interesting ideas, superb imagery – that in-camera shot of the desert giving way to the city! – and the best exhausted fight scene in aeons. Clever title too.

It's basically Kurosawa's High and Low, but for China in 2017. Having said that, and as the director acknowledged, there are no state officials involved in wrongdoing: the corruption shown is all in the private sector, even if it's high-ranking lawyers who operate within the public realm and increasingly dominate Chinese society.

... and curiously, like my previous film in the festival, Todd Haynes' risible Wonderstruck, it hinges on a mute person and a taxidermical diorama. This one's good, though.

There are just too many plot holes, and the screenplay simply lacks any sense of credibility. The first half of the film is unbearably slow and long. The production design is ridiculous. Clearly, the writer-director does not know how to make a decent thriller.

Metaphors for different social strata are in place. The whole movie has a good control over suspense. The script is really good. The mystery is pulled away layer by layer until the last moment. The shortcomings are also obvious, too many indifferent lenses weaken the main line; the lawyer's performance is too superficial, 80% of the scenes are wooden face.