Full River Red

2023 [CHINESE]

Action / Comedy / Drama / History / Mystery

10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 94% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 69% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 3872 3.9K

evil plot costume drama murder mystery song dynasty song dynasty (960-1279)

Director

Yimou Zhang Photo
Yimou Zhang

Top cast

Jackson Yee Photo
Jackson Yee as Sun Jun
Teng Shen Photo
Teng Shen as Zhang Da
Boyang Lin Photo
Boyang Lin as Liu Yan
Yan Huang Photo
Yan Huang as Hu Yong
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.41 GB
1280*536
Chinese 2.0
NR
Subtitles
24 fps
2 hr 37 min
Seeds 2
2.9 GB
1920*804
Chinese 5.1
NR
Subtitles
24 fps
2 hr 37 min
Seeds 6
1.43 GB
1280*536
Chinese 2.0
NR
Subtitles
25 fps
2 hr 38 min
Seeds 1
2.65 GB
1920*804
Chinese 2.0
NR
Subtitles
25 fps
2 hr 38 min
Seeds 7

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Radu_A 7 / 10

The reason why this was such a big hit

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.
Reviewed by anon-15964 7 / 10

Good acting, decent story, terrible and LOUD music

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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