Red River (2009) User Reviews

**Oh, what a SURPRISE!** But, why did they miss this?

[shu-fen · 7/10 · 28 December 2009]

Many questions marks of huge size why this was not in mainstream movie house but only one, two screenings during a film festival celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist rule? Jiarui Zhang successfully captures the odour, the presence of the 1970s in the first part of the story displaying even the film technicality of(ambiance, colour of the film etc) that era. The story though is not without fault, the acting rescues the project. And so, the success more or less is also ascribed to it. Nick Cheung (HK Film Award 2009 – Best Actor) has proved what he deserves, his acting matures as time goes by. Jingchu Zhang is a stunning gem as she is able to play the role of a much younger girl at the age of 28. Loletta Lee is yet another surprise. At 43 and after such a long absence, the female veteran can still fight a good battle, her girlish look is a rivalry between that of Zhang.

The border town exhibits the present China-Vietnam relationship, especially while the former is becoming more influential in that part of the world. Besides, the tradition of Yao-ethnic group (e.g. wedding), the affection of A Tao towards A Xia (which he felt in hindsight and can never reciprocated), crime boss Sha Ba's care and love to the young girl, they are all delicately told.

Just a wild guess that the production team might have to consider income and the worldwide market, otherwise, Sha Ba and A Shui actually would be better played by Mainland Chinese or even Vietnamese actors but not those from Hong Kong. (It has been purported that Tran Nu Yên-Khê, the wife of Anh Hung Tran, has been invited to take up the role of A Shui. Only that her schedules did not permit.) The three Hong Kong actors needed to try very hard to speak Putonghua, the local dialect and also Vietnamese.

It's a movie you'd enjoy but it's also a movie with an ending that breaks your heart.

A beautiful love tragedy

[fotobirajesh · 9/10 · 2 January 2012]

I think I was very lucky to watch this movie. It didn't have much of a media backing and one must be lucky to go by this movie and still to decide to watch it. I feel lucky that I trusted the opinion of a Chinese blog and decided to look for this movie.

I would call this as one of the best love tragedies I have ever seen. The movie does not have any ingredients of a normal entertainer, in fact it progress more like an art house movie. And the first few minutes are quite slow. However, the mine blast comes in as a terrible shock and soon we meet the grown up A Tao, the mentally challenged young lady. Here after, the movie is so engaging and brilliant. The large, innocent and expressive eyes of A Tao will attract us and will make us feel for her. We will laugh, sing and cry with her. What a brilliant character. As the love plot is formed and as the villain arrives, A Tao alone is required to move us on to the edge of our seat. The second half of the movie is really like a thriller and we wish for this strange couple from the bottom of our hearts. I really felt worried for them. And the end, which takes us to a strange feeling is tragic. I mean, there is some hope somewhere, but it is still very sad.You know that it is a big tragedy, but there is a probable may be....

Absolutely, a brilliant performance by Jingchu Zang as A Tao. I have seen her in some other movies too. But this must be her best, for me at least. For me, this is one of the best performances from a female actor, ever. Everybody were good, but A Tao's eyes are haunting me.

An overlooked small gem. Jingchu Zhang is wonderful.

[sitenoise · 8/10 · 14 June 2010]

A film starring Jingchu Zhang. This woman is surprising me. I have seen, and liked, her bit parts in Overheard and The Beast Stalker, a couple manly pictures where the female roles amount to no more than looking good, which she does very well, and assisting the story arc of the manly men moving forward, which she does very well. I didn't imagine her being capable of so much more than that. Ann Hui gave her a starring role in a film I recently reviewed, Night and Fog, and Zhang owned that film. So here comes Red River, another starring role.

The film didn't make a big splash and seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of the many films that were produced to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Communist China. I'm not entirely sure of what connection this film has to that celebration because many of the cultural particulars were lost on me. The film is set near the Red River at the border of China's Yunnan Province and Vietnam. Problem is, Zhang is a Mainland Chinese woman playing a young Vietnamese girl and the other three stars are Hong Kong actors. The dialog seems to drift between some Mandarin dialect and broken Vietnamese—phonetically spoken by the Hong Kong actors—and I couldn't keep a firm grip on who was supposed to be Chinese and who was supposed to be Vietnamese or when things were supposed to be happening in China, or in Vietnam. Things become clearer as the film goes on but while I was working through it, I was confused.

Setting all that aside, Red River is also a rather sweet gender-swapped Oedipal love story interrupted by gangsters. The story starts off with a brief prologue set in the Vietnam war era seventies. A little girl, Ah Tao, witnesses her father being blown to bits by a land mine when they're flying a kite together. Big Bummer, that. It then jumps to the nineties with Zhang playing Ah Tao, all grown up but suffering mentally from the trauma. She's working as a cleaner in a massage parlor (in China) owned by her aunt who has a friend, Ah Ha (Cheung), who happens to look a lot like Ah Tao's father. Ah Ha discovers Ah Tao has a marketable singing voice so he's nice to her while trying to make money off her by charging people a couple dollars to Karaoke with her. The aunt also has a wealthy and cruel gangster client who's mad because he had a leg blown off in the Vietnam War, and he takes an interest in ah Tao because, since she's mentally challenged, she doesn't know enough to avoid him. Ah Tao's affection is for Ah Ha, because he's nice to her and he doesn't kill people for a living—and the other thing—so she runs off with him. This angers the gangster who chases after them to get her back. Tragedy and trouble ensue. Things end sadly.

So much for the story. I really like Zhang's performance. Playing a mentally challenged person is a tough role. More often than not actors resort to obnoxiousness and slobbering to get the point across. Zhang plays it sweet and clean. A Variety reviewer calls Zhang's performance too "one-dimensionally wide-eyed" to be convincing. She is wide-eyed, to be sure, and she may be one dimensional, but her dimension comes off as childlike freedom, unencumbered by the nuances of modern living that clobber any hope for happiness. That's the beauty of the way Zhang plays it. Her handicap is a freedom to approach the world in a state of honest and hopeful wonderment. She's seems happy scrubbing floors and singing for people, and Zhang does a fantastic job bringing that to life.

I may object in principle to the film business habit of having drop-dead gorgeous women with perfect skin, hair, teeth, and nails playing mentally retarded Vietnamese refugees scrubbing floors in massage parlors—but not in practice. Zhang is both beautiful and talented. She's pleasant to look at and she does a good job.