‘Under The Light’: Review

Dir: Zhang Yimou. China. 2023. 127 mins

When is the new Zhang Yimou film not a new Zhang Yimou film? When it’s Under The Light, a rare contemporary-set outing for the venerable Fifth Generation figurehead which was shot on the heels of his ode to cinema One Second (2020). Delayed by almost four years, this convoluted crime drama exits limbo as Zhang is enjoying a hot streak: wartimes thrillers Cliff Walkers (2021) and Snipers (2022) racked up solid returns, while historical mystery Full River Red (2023) became China’s sixth highest grossing domestic title of all time with a $673 million tally. Under The Light may be Zhang’s first urban film since his black comedy Keep Cool (1997), but it shares a kinship with his period pieces in its depiction of complex power relations within corruptible structures. That said, Under the Light pales in comparison to Zhang’s finest work, lacking the flair for intricate storytelling that his work usually demonstrates.

Abrupt edits and traces of dubbing prompt suspicion that the film has been reworked for official purposes in post-production, yet it still plays as a juicy potboiler overall

Hollywood productions that have their release dates repeatedly pushed back usually develop a distinct whiff of failure that saps box office potential, but Chinese cinemagoers are less fazed by such postponements since any local film can be subject to delays for a myriad of reasons. As the major adult-skewing offering for Golden Week, Under The Light should lure audiences during the national holiday through the combination of Zhang’s prestige and the promise of a solid cast navigating a nefarious labyrinth. Despite its shortcomings, decent legs are possible if its staunch anti-corruption message strikes a popular chord. 

Although Zhang remains in high standing internationally, his recent features have aroused less excitement than restorations of his 1990s classics. Festival slots are always a possibility for a director of this calibre, but Under The Light will likely follow Cliff Walkers and Full River Red with a limited theatrical a run paving the way to ancillary markets. Still, it has potential as a streaming item. Zhang is operating within a pulpy genre that doesn’t require critical acclaim to attract eyeballs so fans of East Asian thrillers will probably add this one to their queue.

Set in the fictional Jinjiang City (but shot in the southwest metropolis of Chongqing), it opens with a frustrated citizen (Wang Sun) threatening to detonate a bomb on a public bus unless he gets to air his grievances to Vice Mayor Zheng Gang (Zhang Guoli). The situation ends tragically, although Zheng is saved by his police officer son Su Jianming (Lei Jiayin). Deducing that the hostage taker was a pawn in a scheme to eliminate his father, Su investigates with assistance from fellow officer and ex-girlfriend Li Huilin (Zhou Dongyu). They soon establish a connection to Li Zhitian (Yu Hewei), a wealthy businessman and long-time associate of Zheng.

It gets tangled from here with the plot alternating between Su’s efforts to takedown Li Zhitian despite his relative inexperience and the tycoon’s uneasy alliance with Zheng, who proves to be more of an adversary. There are also sub-plots involving Zheng’s quietly influential wife He Xiuli (Joan Chen) and Li Zhitian’s future son-in-law David (Sun Yizhou).

The delayed release of Under The Light closely aligns it with state agenda (a closing card trumpets the Anti-Organized Crime Law of the PRC, which came into effect over two years after principal photography wrapped). Abrupt edits and traces of dubbing prompt suspicion that the film has been reworked for official purposes in post-production, yet it still plays as a juicy potboiler overall. It even exhibits genre self-awareness since Li Huilin uses the slow cooking of a soup as a metaphor to explain how patience will be needed to bring the guilty parties to justice.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by Chen Yu is so brimming with machinations and shady dealings that it gets too muddled for early momentum to be sustained. Some of the messiness also stems from Zhang being more invested in the dynamic between Zheng and Li Zhitian than in the procedural. The film calls for trust to be placed in the next generation of law enforcers, yet Zhang doesn’t quite have faith in his young leads to carry the drama. Usually an eminently watchable lead, Lei is hamstrung with a bland character while Zhou defaults to tomboy mode.

Zhang is taken with the idea that businessmen and politicians are modern gangsters who run criminal enterprises under the veneer of respectability. Lou Ye covered this terrain in more propulsive fashion with The Shadow Play (2018), but Zhang still gets his point across: Li Zhitian’s literally searing introduction sees him forcing an underling to retrieve a cellphone from a scorching hot pot and he later capably fends off an assassination attempt. Yu also delivers the film’s standout performance, clearly revelling in the escalating stakes. An extended climax with Li Zhitian instructing his henchmen to commit homicide while considerately attending to his daughter (Chen Tong) as she gives birth indicates that the material may have worked better if gallows humour had been brought to the fore.

As in Cliff Walkers, Zhang handily stages several staple set pieces (an attack on a hospitalised witness, the heroes being cornered in a confined space) with Bruce Law’s action choreography on point. Luo Pan’s green and yellow cinematography gaudily conveys a pervading atmosphere of corruption, but is laid on so thick that it becomes quite nauseating over two hours. Although other technical elements are fine, the rushed pacing that is typical of Chinese thrillers gives Under The Light a run of the mill feel which occasionally makes one forget who is behind the camera.