Full River Red (2023) Poster

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5/10
A movies that even the Chinese are not comfortable watching
lcy-4275326 January 2023
The plot is told in the form of a double male lead in a fast-moving, ancient idol scripted secret room. I can appreciate the helplessness and hopelessness of the film's producers.

The short video-style comedy starring Shen Teng is the highlight of the film, and Yi Yiming Qianxi supports the vast majority of the main line and growth story, but it is clear that the character he plays is not doing well in the plot, which is the problem of the script, not the actor.

The cast is undoubtedly too strong in China, when scoring it is recommended to give the cast 6 points first, and then reduce the score according to other issues as appropriate.
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7/10
Yimou Zhang Can't Be Stopped!
dorMancyx20 May 2023
I've always admired Yimou Zhang's creative indefatigability as a director despite how I feel like his method of production is questionable. Flawless exposition just like Cliff Walkers, swiftly establishing the major incident, characters, and interrelation. Limited setting creates compact narration, thus engendering intricate storylines, resulting in a great buildup of suspense. I have no complaint about anything up until He Li's death, as I'm thoroughly infatuated with the murder mysteries, revolving evidences, and occasionally emotive maneuvers. And yet, the lengthy resolution afterwards is just a dreadful throwaway, and I could not get more cringed by a thousand man reciting the poem while flag-waving music plays. It's like when you do the pledge of allegiance in school and the audio plays twice because it's the principal's second son's birthday --- not like it's bad, it's just weird. Anyways, the entire last 30 minutes feel amputated from the rest, making Man Jiang Hong a barely-reached 7 stars for me.
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7/10
Full River Red
jackson_ro20 February 2023
A rather slow and stagnant film in the first half, it was largely driven by charisma of individual actors. Also not helped by the monotonous setting of the film, which is just grey wall and grey sky throughout. But Full River Red quickly picked up steam as twists after twists and as the suspense grew. The movie has a powerful ending as Yue Fei's poem is recited, for which the film is named after. It is not hard to understand why the film had sub a great box office as it is truly a star studded lineup, but perhaps it is a little surprising that the film is more than what is shown on the surface. It is about struggle and standing up to power and desires while being told in a self deficating way.
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Lots of energy but confused by convoluted plot
jim-man22 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Its another patriotic movie from famous Director Zhang Yimou. Rich cinematography and fast paced; but with a totally improbable conspiracy.

The title comes from the famous historical poem Man Jiang Hong. A call to arms to repel barbarian invaders and restore the Chinese Empire. An interesting choice of themes in these days of Russian-Chinese-American confrontation.

Anyway, a group of patriots attempt to uncover the Southern Song's prime minister as a secret Jin collaborator. They go about it in a crazy process of sacrificing each other in order to get closer to the suspect prime minister.

The letter from the Jin king is a red herring, and the final reveal is actually silly.

The cast execute their roles with vigor. Much of the movie is actually brutal, with the casual expenditure of lives. One constant theme is the cunning and vicious infighting among the Song officials.

This movie is popular in China, and we should note that the war drums are beating. This production is primarily a political statement. Less culturally relevant than the director's early works.
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7/10
The reason why this was such a big hit
Radu_A24 December 2023
Zhang Yimou is the most famous Chinese director of all time, but even he cannot be sure to get away with social criticism after the clampdowns against Jack Ma, Hong Kong activists and CoVid critics. So what does a film maker do when he wants to address the frustration many of his compatriots feel? He resorts to satire, and sets the action comfortably far away in the past.

What starts out as a mystery concerning a missing letter no one must know quickly turns into slapstick comedy, and many viewers familiar with Zhang's epics feel let down by this because there isn't really any suspense. There are numerous twists and turns which seem haphazard and do not dive the plot forward. All the while the action is confined to the same palace grounds. It's totally understandable if this seems rather pointless and dull. And the Hamlet-like ending seems out of sync with the previous irony.

And yet, there is something beneath which only people familiar with authoritarian regimes will catch on to - the zeal of government officials to save their own skin with complete disregard to the task at hand. The characters constantly plot against each other and/or form allegiances to somehow emerge from the whole dilemma unscathed. It's mostly in vain because they are puppets of an invisible power - like in contemporary China, where no one can figure out the meaning behind the latest regulations, and where even the powerful thrive at the mercy of appearances. Even the title-giving poem, which could be seen as an allusion to Taiwan, is actually just another smokescreen for personal ambition.

If Zhang had made this into a straightforward mystery or wuxia, it could have been interpreted as subversive by the censors, but because it's farcical, it's all a joke so they can't. So even if the story is too convoluted and the black humor doesn't stick, it's probably still a breath of fresh air for many Chinese spectators and deserves its commercial success.
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6/10
Full River Red
CinemaSerf23 March 2023
When an ambassador is found stabbed to death, the Prime Minister "Qin Hui" (Jiayin Lei) orders an immediate investigation to be headed by his director "He Li" (Yi Zhang) and his deputy "Wu Yichun" (the quite charismatic Yunpeng Yue). Pretty quickly, this investigation has seen the killing of the Captain of the guard and his replacement by the young "Sun Jun" (Jackson Lee) who has alighted on a potential culprit in "Zhang Da" (Teng Shen). The Prime Minister has given the young man and his prisoner just two hours to get to the bottom of the killing and to retrieve a letter thought to have been contained in an ornate leather purse. For much of the first ninety minutes, this is quite a cleverly interwoven and characterful whodunit. Who to trust, who is behind the plot - what is contained in the letter? Who has read the letter? What might the beautiful courtesans know of the mystery? It's quickly paced and quite entertaining. Sadly, though, the last forty-five minutes rather falls away. The characters all start to trip over themselves and the intrigue stops being that and starts to become a bit of a farce leading to an ending that was really weak and disappointing. It looks great though, the production standards and costumes are professional and colourful - it's just an hour too long - and that's without counting the endless pre-title production credits!
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7/10
A very interesting movie! I like it somehow!
ajleong-9872530 March 2023
The storyline is simple, focusing on a murder mystery! There are plenty of twist and turns, which are interesting, making you guess "who will get the letter first?" "who is betraying who?" "whose side does s/he stand?"

The pace is alright, with jokes running through to the end, even though it maybe lengthy.

It is NOT an action movie, BUT more of a comedy + minor action genre! It fills with a lot of dark humors, which distract one from the serious suspense thriller, keep the movie fun!

I found the movie entertaining! Because you have NO CLUE what it is all about! You just need to follow the flow, and it will lead to a BIGGER PICTURE of the movie at the end!! Voilà!!!

The character design is great! Everyone plays a role of aiming for a letter, and each has a card to hide! When a card is revealed, it will lead to another clue!!

Besides, the character development is good too! All of them have a unique personality, and Shen Teng leads the tempo of the entire movie! His sense of humor and jokes are great, and you need to understand them to have a good laugh, in order to enjoy the movie!

It's a nice movie! And I enjoyed watching it very much, especially the ending did impress me quite a bit!! It's a movie that must be watched in the cinema! If I were to watch it via laptop or at home, I would NEVER enjoy it at all! So, pls buy your ticket and watch it in the big theatre!
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6/10
A must watch despite long-winded, hate-inspiring ending
heath-jeffrey22 January 2024
Basically, it feels like there are two movies here. The first is a deep, stylish, well-acted, inspired, artistic yet purposeful movie dripping with Chinese culture. The second is some kind of overdone propaganda flick whose primary message is hateful, nationalism promoting the idea that 'whatever horrible violence is necessary it is worth it if it empowers our nation'.

Overall, it is made up of the first by far, and I'd honestly recommend it to everyone, but especially to people familiar with local Chinese culture (eg. Having lived there or watched numerous Chinese movies and series)... IF you could find the right place to stop watching about 10-15min before the very end.

Since I can't suggest where to stop without major spoilers, I can't recommend it though. I don't think anything with that hateful kind of message should be promoted, especially delivered in its overt, repeated, and intended-to-be-inspiring manner.
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8/10
Slapstick Comedy, Martial Arts Action, Emotional Drama and Conspiracy Thriller Collide in Zhang Yimou's New Blockbuster
kluseba19 April 2023
Man Jiang Hong, internationally known as Full River Red, is a mixture of a period drama and a conspiracy thriller taking place during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song dynasty. The entire movie takes place at the prime minister's residence where a foreign diplomate dies under mysterious circumstances and a secret letter he was carrying disappears without a trace. A team of investigators uncovers a conspiracy that is much more significant than initially anticipated.

This movie convinces on several levels. It has been directed by experienced veteran Zhang Yimou who has been responsible for cinematic masterpieces such as Shadow, The Flowers of War and Hero. While Full River Red isn't among his greatest movies, the calm, precise and swift camera work, the impressively detailed bird perspectives and the use of epic backdrops make this movie a visual sensation.

Full River Red brings the Southern Song dynasty to life with numerous imaginative details. This includes the diversified clothing, the way the huts and palaces are designed and also the use of numerous different weapons. The attention to detail in this film is particularly outstanding.

This film also entertains with a fluid blend of genres that will keep viewers intrigued through its ambitious running time. The movie starts with some slapstick comedy scenes, quickly features some visually stunning martial arts sequences, develops into a profound drama and ultimately becomes a gripping conspiracy thriller. The transitions between all these sections are very smooth as each genre gets about thirty to forty-five minutes to start, shine and fade out before the next section takes over. This procedure makes for a highly entertaining final result.

This movie however isn't without its flaws. The running time of one hundred fifty-nine minutes is a little bit too long for one single film. Zhang Yimou could have easily cut half an hour worth of material to avoid unnecessary repetitions and slow transitions. The plot is very clever but at times includes a few too many twists for its own good before concluding on an exaggeratedly patriotic note that many contemporary Chinese movies are dreadfully suffering from. One last element to criticize are the acting performances that are decent to good but fail to leave a deeper impression. The country's greatest actresses and actors can be found in other contemporary films such as Ride On, Sakra and Post Truth rather than this film.

At the end of the day, Full River Red is a wonderful movie for anyone interested in ancient Chinese culture, creative martial arts films and twisted conspiracy thrillers. For anyone who appreciates all three elements, this movie should firmly sit among the top twenty films of the year. However, this movie isn't as great as the promoters would like us to believe and Zhang Yimou has done better jobs on numerous occasions in the past.
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7/10
Good acting, decent story, terrible and LOUD music
anon-159646 August 2023
What saves this story is the performance of the main cast. All actors play their roles passionately, and they are the only real strenght this movie has. The sets are limited but not holding back the movie.

The story is decently captivating. It starts as a whodunnit, that turns into a case of national security. Various factions are in the game, that don't know who to trust. Overall a gripping story, but it does get more nonsensical as it goes on.

The absolute worst part is the music, especially it's volume. Without exaggeration, the music is 10x as loud as the audio. I spent two hours holding the remote, ready to press mute. The music also fits the scenes it's played in poorly, but that would be forgiven if it was not 10x too loud.
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1/10
As a Chinese I think it's a shame to the Chinese movie
t-1225331 January 2023
I cannot believe that this film has the highest box office during the spring festival. As far as I am concerned it's only a good commercial movie but it's definitely not a meaningful movie to the development of the Chinese movie.

The movie which is positioned as comedy and suspense but the only thing that can make the movie funny is Shen Teng, a Chinese comedy actor. The plot of this movie is not funny at all. As for the suspense part for the movie, well, there is no suspense part for the movie. The only thing the movie has is simple narration, sometimes you can even guess what will happen next. And you called this is suspenseful, how ridiculous.

Anyhow, the movie is meaningless and the narration sucks. And it's not worth watching. Do not waste two and half hours to watch this movie like me.

Sorry about my English. My gramma may have some mistakes.
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10/10
One of Zhang Yimou's best
wp-462445 February 2023
Set in Song Dynasty (circa 1146 AD) in ancient China, Full River Red is one of director Zhang Yimou's best - a combination of masterful storytelling, character development (including a superb performance by Jackson Yee as Sun Jun), original sound track containing Chinese Yu Opera, and artful visuals. The storyline is simple enough - the entire movie revolves around two central characters searching for the truth and a disappeared letter following the murder of an enemy official. The allegiances and true intentions of the central characters, including that of the support characters, are often deceiving and offer surprising "reveals". Themes of loyalty and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for a greater belief is explored throughout, and comedic dialogue often takes places to keep the film in a general light tone. Having taken the number 1 box office in China over the Chinese New Year period, this is a film to demonstrate why Zhang remains one of China's best directors.
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6/10
a perplexing movie that would probably make sense if you were Chinese
cherold14 April 2024
This is a tough movie to get a hold of. The producers apparently described it as a suspense movie with comedic elements, but it is rarely either funny or suspenseful. I'd say it's in part a drama of intrigue, part a mystery, but mainly I'd call it a horror movie because it's got a brutal body count and many deaths are horrifically cruel.

In fact, for me what's most interesting about the movie is how well it portrays a world where the pecking order involves who can kill who, making life cheap as people use murder to impress or jockey for position. It's actually a good example of a systemic issue - it's a kill or be killed world and there's really no way out.

The story involves a murder investigation, at least at first, but there are all sorts of twists and turns along the way. It's convoluted and at times I got lost.

But finally at the end the central driving force of everything is revealed, and it made ZERO sense to me. I had to do a bunch of research to figure out the meaning. Full River Red is apparently a poem schoolchildren learn in China but if you don't know the poem or Chinese history then the denouement is incomprehensible.

I'm not saying this as a criticism - it's perfectly fine to make a movie that only makes sense to the people of the country it's made in. I'm just offering a warning that the ending may not resonate as well if you didn't grow up in China.

Overall, I liked Full River Red but didn't love it. It's genuinely engrossing. The cast is good, particularly Teng Shen and Wang Jiayi. The score by Hong Han is amazing, with all these crazy punk songs that I've read are rocked-out Chinese folk songs. But the weird genre stew, the unpleasant brutality, and the puzzling-until-you-research-it ending made it less enthralling than the best of director Yimou Zhang's films.
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1/10
Ordinary arrogant and bottomless rubbish movies
DuanBaoyu1 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I had never heard of it before it was released, and after its release, almost all critics were boasting how perfect the film was. I went to watch it with a try. After watching it, I realized that I had been cheated.

The two-hour story film took three hours to tell, which led to an extremely slow pace. Most of the lines were dialogue between the characters, which made me feel like watching a very long and boring talk show. As a suspense comedy film, its suspense is regular, but comedy itself is a joke: there is no comedy in the whole film. It is all cold jokes, so I can't understand where the jokes are. The only interesting jokes have been reused many times in the film, and it is not funny in the end.

If you just regard it as a commercial film produced like an assembly line, it's understandable. You can barely watch it in the first two hours. But in the last 20 minutes, in order to sublimate their feelings, the director and screenwriter forcibly recite Yue Fei's "Man Jianghong · Xie Huai" from different actors three times! Such forced sublimation makes me feel very embarrassed. I know that the main theme movies will sublimate emotions, but the sublimation of "Manjianghong" is terrible!

Because the story takes place at night and the shooting takes place during the day, they can only turn the picture into night through special effects, so you will find a lot of unreasonable light. Their color palette is so dark that people like me who are highly short-sighted look uncomfortable. There is nothing to say about editing, just ordinary. The only highlight is the use of Henan opera-related clips for transition and tandem connection between each major event. If they subtitle Henan opera, it will help the audience understand.

As a history enthusiast, I also paid attention to the clothes style of this film, and the result was that it was terrible . The red official uniform worn by Qin Hui wore in the later period was actually more inclined to the style of the Ming Dynasty isn't Song Dynasty. The armor of the soldiers is more imaginary. In terms of which generation, I think they are really like Japanese. And the crew is even more disrespectful of history: in order to promote the film, they took "Manjianghong · Xie Huai " out of context on a microblog. After understanding history, you will find that the real characters in history are likely not to say those words. Although the film repeatedly emphasizes that stories are fictional, I think fictional stories should also respect history rather than rewrite history. This film is insulting history and insulting the real Yue Jia Jun.

The most disgusting thing is the marketing of this film. When you walk into cinemas in China, you will see that almost all the posters are Manjianghong, and the posters of other movies are in the corner. Its screening arrangement is also terrible. Almost all IMAX cinemas near me are used to show Manjianghong, and other movies can only be shown in ordinary projection halls. They fabricated the box office and controlled the reviews and scores of major rating websites in China. Therefore, the film creates the feeling that this is an epic movie and tricks more people into watching it to increase the box office. On the Cat's Eye Movie website, it scored 9.5, but only 6.8 on IMDb. This is enough to prove how bad the film is and how crazy the control score is.

This makes me completely dislike this movie. If it doesn't do these bad things, it may be an ordinary commercial movie. But based on all the above crimes, my assessment is a RUBBISH MOVIE!
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9/10
A masterpiece that would age like a fine wine
sendsai22 May 2023
IMDb review

It's risky when a director change genre half way through the movie... lots of big names did it successfully and the result is a fun ride.

Quentin Tarantino's From Dusk Till Dawn, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness, and now... Zhang Yimou's Full River Red. These are risky masterpieces the directors undertook. I enjoy the ride throughly. Act one was so different from Zhang's previous films, I had to double check the credits. I went along with it, trying to forget it's the same director that gave us Hero and Raise the Red Lantern. I even let go and started laughing at some of its jokes. But Act 2 got my attention... Act 3 had me in tears! What a ride.

The movie has its problems. But overall it worked for me. I applaud Zhang's attempt at this script and giving us this rare masterpiece from China. Perhaps the only one so far that has attempted this kind of story telling. Maybe this is ahead of its time for the intended audience, but I believe it'll age like a fine wine.
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3/10
a subtle call to arms propaganda
flcntk3-856-98601711 March 2023
Historically based films almost always use the past to comment or reflect on the present, and "Full River Red" is no exception. This is directed by Zhang Yimou, the person who brought you "Hero", a film that suggests unification trumps tyranny and thus making tyranny forgivable. The tyrant in that story was Qin Shi Huang, an emperor who burned books and buried scholars alive by the mass. In the case of "Full River Red", it borrows from the legendary story surrounding the hero of Yue Fei by using Qín Huì, the person who purportedly was instrumental for Fei's death, as the pivotal character to spin an intriguing story not so much about loyalty and betrayal to the emperor as one would expect from the plot, but interestingly sidelining the climax to a different focal point about awakening the army to pledge allegiance to Fei's defense of the Sung's dynastic unity. That was a call to battle for the army to claim land that was lost to the invading Jin. How this point becomes the focusing nexus for the entire film was at that very scene, the army recite in chorus the famous Fei's poem: "Full River Red ", and that recitation was built to a powerful climatic high point of emotional crescendo. This is what the story is really about. Army allegiance to defend territorial integrity. A sentiment that is in harmony with the current context of Sino-geopolitical ambition from the Chinese Communist Party perpetual helmsman Xi's perspective. Looking back at the message from "Hero" to now, you may say "Full River Red" is an extension of that same sentiment. That said, Zhang also brought you "To Live" in his earliest works. A film that shows empathetically from the inside the harrowing plight of Chinese nationals as they try to adept and survive in the topsy turvy political turmoil of China, especially under the Cultural Revolution and the ruling thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. That grassroot perspective is not lost in "Full River Red" either. If you look beneath the sophisticated and well-polished veneer of the film which serves subtly as a Party instrument calling for army's loyalty to defend national integrity, you will see beneath that veneer the overbearing stench and corruption coming from omnipotent power, the callous self-serving use of others, and the maneuvering skills one needs to stay alive where personal truth and integrity if there are any are always best kept close to the chest. As said so at the beginning of my review, historical films are to use the past to reflect and comment on the now and this is exactly what Full Red River is doing. As such, you can say it is propagandistic.
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10/10
It's a very good movie,worth watching!
ziyouwangmin6 February 2023
Full River Red features a standout performance from Jackson Yee after his breakthrough in the Oscar-nominated "Better Days". At only 22 years old, Yee's performance as a rough steely hearted army general is both stunning and commendable. The film itself is a political suspense featuring many unexpected plot twists. The script is clever in many aspects and the ending is masterful and beautifully done. Well done Zhang Yimou and Jackson Yee. I would also recommend Jackson Yee's other films such as Nice View (available on Netflix), a Little Red Flower and his period Drama The Longest Day in Chang'an.
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1/10
Poorly made movie without any interesting features
mingo_review19 March 2023
Visual: all grey setting, unnecessary and poor vfx 2/10.

The cloth didn't have any historical accuracy, poorly made and cheap on the screen

Plot: 0/10 dumbest plot ever. Lack in-depth segments, they can not even tell the audience the basic setting of movie, not to mention the below average IQ set of final part

Acting: 3/10 most actors like Yi and Zhang have no acting skills. They really need to work on actor training, not to make movie in two months, but two years to level the basic acting skill.

Music: 5/10. The only good part of the movie.

Director Zhang Yimo is such a disappointment, he can't make a good movie. He's too old and cannot learn any new.
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8/10
Full punch from Zhang Yimou
keriso28 March 2023
I can read some of the comments on these reviews - firstly it is not for the person who don't appreciate layers and nuances of crafty human games. Those who like pure action or hong kong type of simpified plots will not appreciate this and will mark it as low score. However I suspect Zhang is painting on this broad canvass multiple themes with the underlying one on the geopolitics around China now, hence the hit in China with the masses there. That call to arms when they feel besieged by outside forces has a resounding clang from the recitation of the poem of the name of this film. The other reason is, China audience has a much deeper appreciation for their history and cultural reference - and these themes found in the movie has resonance with them.

You can see from his earlier works - where symbolism and the tapestry of how he structure his sets are now pared down to very basic backdrop. The pacing and the dialogue and all the twist and turns as he slowly introduce it while you peel the layers of intrigue built into the whole story. It is for the mature audience who has tasted the games in their worklife and being caught between two rocks - you can sympathise with the characters as they try to wit themselve out of the situation which we had experienced before in different guise in our lives - all through the film you try to keep an even keel whether this whole thing was planned or it was adapt as it go on - this is the feeling you develop as you keep watching.

The pacing was excellent, the music designed to be a merge of old and new is supposed to be jarring to create the dissonance between the different scenes and quicken the tension - everyone has an angle and it's like trying to keep an eye on where the ball is in one of the three cups as these are being moved around quickly. As the layers peel more and more, you can identify with the different characters, their motivations and positioning each of them working on - and it's like every single piece of chess is making their own moves on the board within their own confined rules - it is for this reason those who want more depth and layers to their movie watching will appreciate Zhang move to pare down to just basic simple set (not much of sets) and then all the focus is on the characters and the games they all have to play while the sword of death hangs over the two main characters and all those who fall into their orbit.

And at the end of the show - there was an actual final objective - just that there were many ways they had to adapt to finally reach that. And with that Zhang Yimou perform his coda elegantly bringing the symphony to an end. Chapeau Mr Zhang, chapeau !
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1/10
Zhang Yimo,please don't make any comedy movie
xiaohei-801121 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This is the first review I do since Imdb required 600 words. This movie is full of plot hole that I can write more than 600 words without thinking. Bad guy need to die foolishy to keep the story going. As a cunning and careful big rank official advisor die because he pass the knife too near and being stab to death.

Many repeat joke , mostly 3 guy keep pushing each other to complete a task example letter scene,comfort yao qinscene,(did u heard again) scene.

He li hit Zhang Da head using countless iratating useless drum effects. Script writer just want to do ending by all the soldiers chanting Yue Fei poems without much care how the story go from start. Most of the lines is by actor themselves is not funny at all ,u can feel is by their previous movie.

As a such a cunning Qin Kuai already suspect his double side with Yue Fei didn't kill him.1hr can drag till 3hr movie. What a joke!
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10/10
Phenomenal Film
wanglingxin6 February 2023
As we all know, many of the world's top film directors such as Woody Allen, Ridley Scott, Eastwood and even Spielberg peaked after the age of 70. I believe that China's Zhang Yimou is about to join their ranks also. Full River Red is really a culmination of Zhang's directorial career, and he had even stated this many times himself, that the movie is a tribute to his own career.

The movie is a new genre of suspenseful patriotic comedy. The acting skills of all the actors - Shen Teng, Lei Jiayin, Zhang Yi, and Yue Yunpeng are amazing, and Jackson Yee (Yi Yangqianxi) in his brand new role, has stepped up once again, showing that he is simply the light of the new generation of actors in China.
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1/10
Not worth the time and money
tinashengty20 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is a completely disappointment. The decade of Yimou Zhang has passed and I am very surprised that he would present such a movie, claiming to top the Chinese new year box office, in shockingly low quality. Promoted as a movie for family to enjoy, I did not find the storyline interesting, nor the scenes appropriate for any underage minors. The plot is based on a historical figure Yue Fei's life story without even telling the audience who the person is, but put a lot of emphasis on the killer of Yue Fei. The entire movie took place in a courtyard house, with absurd violence and uncomfortable use of language to body shame the women. I do not understand those reviews claiming this to be Yimou Zhang's best work - I think it is his worst piece.
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10/10
It really shocked me
l-919482 March 2023
It's really super beautiful! It's really the movie with the highest box office in the Spring Festival. Director Zhang Yimou didn't disappoint me. He was wondering if it would be too hard for more than two hours. I never expected that I would be so absorbed in watching it. I didn't even go to the toilet. So many reversals really shocked me. Yiyang Qianxi is a good actor. I have seen every movie of his, and his acting skills are getting better and better. One thing that defines this comedy is Shen Teng and Yue Yunpeng, I wanted to laugh when they came out. My friend said that he thought that Qin Hui played very well. We will watch it again two weekends!
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Not convinced by the core value at all
MsShirlyS20 May 2023
I can see that Yimou Zhang tries really hard to have multiple twists in the movie in order to surprise the audience as much as he could, and the movie has some fun moments for sure, but I am not convinced by the final twist - the purposes of the gang, which is to pass on the poem written by Yue Fei before he was executed. This just seems too nationalistic, political, twisted and pointless, and literally makes this movie more like a propaganda movie than a piece of art, as the core value is so twisted!

People's lives are more precious than anything. It's a great deed that people sacrifice themselves to save another's life, but it's just a brain wash that people are willing die to pass on the love to their ruler.

It's really sad to see the twisted value in so many Chinese movies nowadays, and Yimou Zhang just contributed another.
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4/10
Stop hiring Shen Teng
DanTheMan2150AD9 July 2023
Once upon a time, Zhang Yimou made good movies, but Full River Red is not one. While the production and scope of the film is huge which I can only applaud, it's production is massive with the money clearly onscreen. However, as a comedy thriller trying to emulate the likes of the Coen brothers, it doesn't work. The cast doesn't commit to their bits leaving many of the performances high and dry; it's ultimately disapppointing for anyone looking for something resembling Yimou's older works, and there's a horribly awkward tonal shift towards the end. Maybe just stop hiring Shen Teng for comedies, he isn't funny...
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