The Dead End (2015) User Reviews

It restored my hope in Chinese domestic films

[imim123 · 8/10 · 15 September 2015]

Before I stepped into the cinema, I was worried that this film may be a waste of money and time. But after I watched it, to my relief, I found out it is actually pretty good. It may sound strange to you, but as a Chinese, I don't often go to theaters to watch Chinese domestic films, because after years of disappointment from the domestic film industry, it is hard for me to have any confidence in buying another of their tickets. Most of the time it is American popcorn movies I am looking for in the cinema. So when I come to the realization that "The Dead End" is a good film, there is a little excitement in my heart.

My favorite character is Guchun Yi, the policeman played by Yihong Duan. Duan gave his best performance to portray us an experienced Chinese policeman .Yi is a complicated character. On one hand, he is the typical kind of policeman who serves justice with on reservation. Even when Xin becomes his best friend, he still arrested him once he is informed of his criminal identity. On the other hand, before he comes to his final decision to arrest Xin, he went through difficult emotional struggle. Even when he is aware of Xin's identity, he still tries to help him within limit of law.

Though "The Dead End" enjoys considerable merits, frankly speaking, it is still a long way from being a classic crime/mystery film. Due to China's strict censoring policy, it is hard for Chinese Film industry to produce a lot of movies of high quality every year. I wish Chinese censoring administration to loosen restrictions on film industry to make room for more quality movies.

A brave film revealed some dark sides of China

[lianqing-li · 8/10 · 31 August 2015]

It never occurs to me a film made in China can include so many factors in a film after censorship: rape, murder, direct gay culture reference, blood, brief nudity (female) and even lethal injection - the first time ever I saw such a scene in a film.

Apart from all of that the film's success largely lies in the best selling book it has adapted from: Macula. Not like majority of the films which for me the director (Baoping CAO) has moved significantly from the original story, upgraded to a higher level by challenging the existing death penalty system in China.

The watershed differentiate the book and the film mainly draw from the ending part - =============== Spoiler alert ===================== when the book concluded with 3 Young people being found guilty for what they did back to 7 years ago and conducted lethal injection, the film has lifted the story by making such death sentence as a miscarriage - it's a brave move in my view as the film is substantially challenging the existing death penalty system in China, which is yet to be a taboo but a sensitive topic for sure. Considered the backdrop that quite a few miscarriage death sentenced cases were revealed in recent years, the film has further boosted the discussion on being extremely discreet on death sentence, and even whether such penalty should be necessary.

I am deeply impressed by the bold move of Director Cao, who is famous of pushing the limits of the censorship bureaus in China. And he did it again.

I won't give it a 8 just because its braveness but also unexpected outstanding performance from the main actors (who has shared Shanghai film festival's best actor awards), and half credits have to give to the author Xu Yigua, a Xiamen resident, where the story was set.

To the director, I will say Bravo CAO (you will know what it means if you know Chinese) ! !

...almost a great movie..but..unfortunately, will probably not see the light of day....

[bcheng93 · 7/10 · 17 February 2016]

...a really, really powerful ending.... ....it's got Deng Chao in the lead as supposed baddie.... ....strong movie about redemption and the cost of.... this movie was forcefully edited dued to pressure by government(communist mainland china) and yet it's still an engrossing crime, suspense genre movie. haha...just goes to prove that it's hard to sabotage something that is really really good. i would rate this as top 7 of my favorite movies of 2015. came across it by luck really and decided to take a chance on it because Deng Chao is one of my favorite Chinese actors. i was not the least bit disappointed, the 2hrs. and 20 mins. seem to fly by. short gist of story...3 young men supposedly commit a gruesome crime...murdering a family of 5. then it fast forwards to 7 years down the line and what they are doing with their lives. there is a reveal on top of a reveal at the end. might take a couple of viewings to understand why the men did what they did at the end.

The gray scale of good and evil

[xuefeiding · 7/10 · 26 April 2020]

"Burning heart in the sun" tells the story of a massacre seven years ago. Each of the main characters in the film is more or less related to the tragedy. Yi Guchun has always wanted to solve the case, Xin Xiaofeng and others want to escape from the legal sanctions, but after Yi Guchun found Xin Xiaofeng's suspicion, he hesitated and hesitated. Therefore, the main characters in the film are all burned by the sun, and everyone is suffering from the torture of conscience. In fact, it's a black crime video. It's heavy enough to taste and cruel enough to heart. Cao Baoping, the director, has a certain scale and tells the story with great power. In the process of watching the film, he can't think of the direction of the film story. Duan Yihong, as a decent role in the film, can be said to be bringing criminals to justice. However, Deng Chao, Guo Tao and other villains have been designing to let Duan Yihong into a mystery of investigation. In this video, the ending is not very important. What matters is the truth.

Good movie

[yoggwork · 9/10 · 19 February 2019]

Good movies, but also intentionally tell the story, lens language and switching are very comfortable, not too much irrelevant plot mix. Several of the actors were good, but the fearful performance was slightly exaggerated. Two minor supporting actors, Chen Bijue and the real criminals, whose acting skills are really impressive.

Good vs bad guy!

[phebychow · 8/10 · 3 August 2022]

Are they bad people with unforgivable sin? It seems that it is impossible to say so particular the unconditional love they give away to Tail. However, are they good people with conscience? Or they just want to redeem their original sin. So human nature is complex, and good and bad are not obvious and absolute. All in all their acting is convincing.