Richard Gere stands on anti-China soapbox in 'Red Corner'
Richard Gere stands on anti-China soapbox in 'Red Corner'
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Red Corner is the sort of film that hits you in
the gut, invoking a nameless fear of being framed for murder in a
foreign country (China, in this case) known for its complicated
legal system.
What's more, nobody believes you are innocent. Hanging heavy
over your head is the possibility of conviction for a capital
offense, mandating death by firing squad a week after the verdict
is read.
No possibility of lengthy appeals to keep you hanging on to a
lifeline. And even the cost of the bullet will be billed to your
family back home.
The film opens with a little girl sitting alone on the
riverbank, listening to the rhythmical sounds of a bamboo tree.
The tree, she says, is waiting for the wind to touch it.
This idyllic scene is then replaced by the film-maker's view
of the China today; children play soccer in Tiananmen Square and
tourists snap away with their cameras, unknowingly under the
observant gaze of nearby soldiers and electronic monitors.
High-rises fringe Beijing streets swarming with vehicles, the
trappings of the capitalist economy.
Director John Avnet, who also directed Michelle Pfeiffer and
Robert Redford in Up Close and Personal, is obviously setting up
a contrast between perceptions of reality, and the often jarring
realities which exist underneath.
Just 20 years ago, communism was a virtual religion dictating
what people wore and ate, where they lived and traveled and even
what they thought.
Dour Mao suits were de rigeur, the only homes were those
allocated by the state, people could not travel, even to
neighboring cities, without permits and the few publications
available were controlled by the state.
Changes may have come with more open economic times, but Avnet
wants to show that the Chinese people are not as free as they
seem.
He gets the message home through simple devices -- the
monitoring cameras in Tiananmen -- and with the central plot of
the innocent in peril.
Murder
As part of the Chinese government's commitment to open itself
up to the outside world, it makes its first satellite
communication deal with a large entertainment conglomerate
represented by American Jack Moore (Gere).
Not all of the officials are happy with the deal. Moore is
trapped in the middle of the political intrigues, and framed for
murdering the model he slept with on the night the deal was
sealed.
Despite his protestations of innocence, nobody believes him,
including embassy officials and his court-appointed defense
attorney, Shen Yuelin (Bai Ling), the little girl from the
riverbank.
Moore then has to follow court proceedings through
translations via an earphone, which often fails to function at
crucial moments.
As the evidence against him is overwhelming -- he is placed at
the scene of the crime and there is an incriminating pile of
bloodstained clothes -- Moore depends on Yuelin to save his life.
Despite the salvos fired, Moore does not crumble from the
indignities of the system, even when a prison officer washes his
plate in the toilet, or when he is "accidentally" beaten by other
criminals.
He still gets to enjoy some privileges, such as when Yuelin
bails him out of the jail and takes him to her house, plays music
for him and takes him to the crime scene.
This is not Gere's first courtroom drama; in Primal Fear, he
played a big shot lawyer who thrives on sensational cases.
But in Red Corner, the loyal disciple of the Dalai Lama's
Tibetan Buddhism has an opportunity to voice his dissenting
sentiments over China and country's judicial system.
Gere is known for his fierce criticism of Beijing. He has
urged foreign governments to keep telling China to respect the
human rights of all its citizens, claiming that only persistent
pressure would bring improvements in China's human rights record.
Not surprisingly, Red Corner was banned by the Chinese
government.
Chinese actress Bai Ling's American starring debut is worthy
of praise.
She is totally believable in the role of a woman raised during
the chaotic, ultraleftist 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, when
schools were shut and radical Red Guards burned books and
destroyed temples and artworks.
Just like her bamboo tree, Yuelin waits for the wind to touch
her. Moore's case gets her involved on a personal level with her
client, and instills her with the courage to question the legal
system she serves.
What unfolds is a courtroom drama that, while full of twists
and turns, is somewhat high on theatrics as well.
It reminds one anew of how skewered the justice system is,
which depends on the resources, dramatic skills and personalities
of the lawyers to win or lose cases.
Sure, this is fiction. But reality has a way of being
uncomfortably close in spirit, if not in style.
Anyway, those are not really the concerns of Red Corner. The
movie tends to be glib at times, the transitions coming on too
quickly and easily. And like many over-the-top, clever plots, too
close a look at it reveals gaps, with not all threads tied.
The courtroom thriller is a genre of moviemaking for which
audiences have a distinct partiality. Which is why, of course, so
many movies on this theme have been made -- some brilliant, some
pure garbage, and most somewhere in between.
This plenitude of legal thrillers also makes it harder for
individual movies in this category to stand out and be
differentiated.
While Red Corner may be no reinvention of the wheel, it is at
least a very well-done refinement of it. And also an opportunity
to view Richard Gere, the actor and activist.