Red Corner - maze with no way out

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Movie
German title Red Corner - maze with no way out
Original title Red Corner
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jon Avnet
script Robert King
production Jon Avnet
Rosalie Swedlin
Jordan Kerner
music Thomas Newman
camera Karl Walter Lindenlaub
cut Peter E. Berger
occupation

Red Corner - Labyrinth Without A Way Out (Original title: Red Corner ) is an American thriller from 1997 . The director was Jon Avnet and the script was written by Robert King . The main roles were played by Richard Gere and Bai Ling .

action

The American star lawyer Jack Moore is about to conclude a television cooperation between a US company and the Chinese government in Beijing . Until the Chinese party officials have made a decision, the American delegation will be offered a varied supporting program. As part of this program, Moore meets a local photo model with whom he spends the night and who is found dead the next morning. Moore is arrested, the model turns out to be the daughter of a Chinese general who now wishes Moore's death.

The young public defender Shen Yuelin takes on the defense in the trial that has aimed to convict Moore from the start. Since the court, led by presiding judge Xu, does not allow important evidence and testimony, and even Yuelin does not initially believe in the innocence of her client, Moore's hopes for a fair trial seem hopeless.

When Yuelin and Moore manage to find indications of Moore's innocence despite all resistance, Moore's life is increasingly in danger. Both in prison and on the way to a crime scene inspection, two murders were carried out on him. In the second attack, Moore managed to escape and he reached the American embassy where he was seeking asylum.

There he has to find out, however, that Yuelin had to vouch for Moore with her career in order to enable the crime scene inspection. This prompts Moore, who has since taken a liking to the handsome Yuelin, to leave the embassy to face the Chinese authorities.

In a conversation, Moore and Yuelin admit to each other that they have been hiding from life for years. Moore, formerly an orphan, fled to work after a fatal road accident involving his wife and child. During the Cultural Revolution, Yuelin silently allowed her father to be humiliated in front of her eyes even though he was innocent. After this discussion, Yuelin is finally convinced of Moore's innocence and both decide not to hide from their problems anymore.

Yuelin and Moore can prove in court that Moore is innocent and that the act was committed on behalf of Lin Dan, Moore's business partner and son of a Chinese minister, in order to discredit Moore and cause the Chinese government to collapse its business with Moore's company and the planned contract is concluded with the competition instead. She had promised Dan an important post, provided the deal comes off. However, only after the attorney general, under pressure from Yuelin, instructs the judge to accept the clear evidence, Moore is acquitted.

The victim's father unceremoniously shoots the unmasked mastermind behind the murder of his daughter in front of the doors of the courtroom, as he hardly faces any punishment due to his political connections, and apologizes to Moore for the agony and hardship he was subjected to, before he himself is taken away for the revenge murder.

Moore and Yuelin embrace amicably at the airport. Moore wants to invite Yuelin to the US, but she wants to stay in China to fight for the rights of those who have been oppressed since the Cultural Revolution and to look after her grandmother. She comforts Moore with the fact that Moore now has a family again - she herself, who played a major role in his life and whose lives he changed.

Reviews

The film received mixed reviews. In Cinema 2/1998 it was described as “speculative mainstream”, in TV Today 2/1998 as “exciting”.

The Lexicon of International Films wrote that the film was “a clumsily constructed judicial film, the purpose of which is to denigrate the Chinese way of life and jurisprudence. It cannot even meet the basic requirements of the genre. "

Awards

Richard Gere , Bai Ling, and Jon Avnet won the National Board of Review Award . The film won the Political Film Society Award for Democracy .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".

backgrounds

Shortly after its release, the film was banned in the People's Republic of China and Bai Ling was banned from entering the country. It is also the last major Hollywood film to have fundamentally criticized the People's Republic of China.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Red Corner - Labyrinth with no way out . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 78942 / V). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Red Corner - Labyrinth without a way out ( Memento from May 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon
  3. ↑ Red Corner - Labyrinth with no way out. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 26, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Red Corner - Labyrinth with no way out on fbw-filmbassy.com
  5. ^ Actress Bai Ling returns to China, provokes outrage in documentary. In: The Straits Times . Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co, November 2, 2016, accessed July 30, 2019 (British English): "Soon after Red Corner was released, it was banned in China, and Bai was prohibited from returning to see her family."
  6. ↑ Franka Lu, Robert Meyer (translation): Europe must not give up. Carelessness and complicity in the West. In: ZEIT ONLINE . ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, July 15, 2019, accessed on July 26, 2019 : “When was the last time you saw a major Hollywood film that contained fundamental criticism of China? That was a while ago, it must have been Red Corner - Labyrinth with no way out with Richard Gere, the film was released in 1997. "