Full River Red

The famed Chinese writer-director Zhang Yimou's Full River Red is a thrilling and whimsical palace intrigue set within the walls of the Imperial Court of 12th-century China. This potent and deftly achieved mix of genres – action, mystery, slapstick comedy, romance, buddy drama – hinges on the relationship between Zhang, an ordinary soldier with great survival instincts and Sun, an ambitious commander. Amid crucial diplomatic meetings, an important letter goes missing, a murder takes place and there’s still more, Full River Red is full of twists, revelations and reversals of allegiance enthralling us in the machinations of political power.

Whether presenting neorealist vignettes or vast historical epics, Zhang manages to continuously smuggle subversive ideas into his films. Viewers fond of finding traces of political allegory will be richly awarded. The allusions are contemporary and international, including the very setting behind impenetrable walls, or a rousing 'mass human megaphone' spectacle recalling the Occupy movement. 

The title itself refers to a patriotic poem whose recital makes the film one of the few to generate such emotional power from a piece of poetry. And don’t miss the dazzling recap montage during the end credits! 

– Adrian Martin