Yesterday I finally got a chance to watch the 2023 Crime Drama by Zhang Yimou. I really like Yimou's films (My favorite is still The Road Home).

Under The Light is a Chinese crime drama starring Lei Jaiyin and Zhou Dongyu. Jaiyin plays a meidocre Chinese Police Offier who has had an lackluster career, dreams of being a Policeman for the people. Is investigating the bombing of a city bus that looks like it was aimed at assasinating his father who is a Deputy Mayor of their city Zheng Gang (Zhang Guoli).

The investigation not only uncovers past shady dealings between his father and Corrupt Businessman Li Zhitian (Yu Hewei), but the shocking origins of his adoption. Even though he must face the fact that his father is corrupt, he pushes through to see that justice is done, for the people!

Zhang Yimou has always had a facisnation with capturing vivid color, and experimenting with playing with light in his films. Under The Light took this to an extreem, with oversaturated neon themes of the Chinese urban life. To the point of distraction. Filmed purely in digital, gone was any sort of grain or matte that would lend an artistic look to his filmography.

While I was looking forward to how a criminal procedure drama in China would be handled, where the outcome is largly driven by politics, the muddy story line was confusing to follow at times. There is a point where following plot twists become too cerebral. It did not help that the subtibles for my print were often times too small, and inside the picture instead of the letterboxing and got washed out by the overuse of urban lighting to read at times, did not help the situation. There definately was quite a bit of propaganda thrown in letting you know that in China, corruption and bourgeoisie lifestyle will always be rooted out and crushed by the collective "PEOPLE".

The movie was not terrible, but not one of my favorite Yimou works. If you enjoy watching Chinese or foreign films it is a good watch, but not something I would rave about.

Rug Rat (Brent Hendricks)
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