Snipers
狙击手
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.
Directors: Zhang Yimou 张艺谋, Zhang Mo 张末.
Rating: 6/10.
Gripping action/psychodrama, as Chinese and US snipers face off in a sideshow to the Korean War, unfortunately becomes much more conventional in its third act.
STORY
North Korea, 1952, winter. During the stand-off after the fifth battle in the war, the (Chinese) People’s Volunteer Army began a campaign of sniper and small-scale artillery attacks 冷枪冷炮运动, in which sniper squads killed over 50,000 of the enemy despite having only basic equipment. Among them was Fifth Squad, a group of 10 led by legendary sergeant Liu Wenwu (Zhang Yu), a crack shot dubbed Grim Reaper by the enemy. Obsessive US sniper John (Jonathan Kos-Read} has been tracking Fifth Squad for months and is determined to beat it, and especially Liu Wenwu. John’s new commanding officer Williams (Andrew James) points out that US Congress has ordered that Liu Wenwu should be taken alive, but John makes it clear that is not his intention. Liu Wenwu receives orders to rescue two Chinese intelligence agents who were ambushed the previous night by US troops and may have vital information. Li Wenwu leaves behind the “educated” but emotional Chen Dayong (Chen Yongsheng) to represent him in a long-planned interview with two Chinese reporters (Lin Boyang, Wang Youming); but the interview is a disaster when Chen Dayong makes it clear he should be on the mission, as one of the spies, Liangliang (Liu Yitie), is an old schoolfriend of his. The company commander (Zhang Yi) finally stops the interview and gives Chen Dayong permission to go. Arriving at a snow-covered battlefield in a small valley, the squad sees two bodies lying there. While collecting them, the Chinese are ambushed by US snipers and Li Wenwu realises they’ve fallen into a trap specially laid by John. Three of the Fifth Squad are wounded and one is killed. Li Wenwu manages to kill one US sniper. Then a young North Korean boy who knows the Korean-speaking Liangliang unexpectedly arrives on the scene to bring his body back to the village. Both sides fire to stop him dragging Liangliang’s body away, but the US snipers lure him to their side using cans of food. Pangdun (Chen Mingyang), a chubby member of Fifth Squad, uses a metal plate as protection to go down and tie a rope to Liangliang’s leg. Eventually he’s killed by John. The US snipers then send the Korean boy down to inject adrenaline into Liangliang’s body. To the surprise of the Chinese, Liangliang turns out to be still alive and the injection brings him round. Liu Wenwu realises Liangliang’s wounded body was only placed in position a few hours ago – not just to lure him and the squad there but also to make sure they don’t retreat, as Liangliang may have vital information somewhere on his person. But the remaining members of Fifth Squad are already low on ammunition, and there are still six US snipers on the high ground opposite.
REVIEW
Chinese and US sharpshooters pick each other off across a bleak, snow-covered battlefield in Snipers 狙击手, a gripping, strikingly shot action/psychodrama that unfortunately becomes much more conventional in its third act. In his 30-odd years as a director, Mainland veteran Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 has made films in almost every genre, most of which have been backgrounded by either military conflict (Red Sorghum 红高粱, 1987; Hero 英雄, 2002; The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗, 2011; The Great Wall 长城, 2016; Shadow 影, 2018; Cliff Walkers 悬崖之上, 2021) or political turbulence (To Live 活着, 1994; Shanghai Triad 摇啊摇，摇到外婆桥, 1995; The Road Home 我的父亲母亲, 1999; Coming Home 归来, 2014; One Second 一秒钟, 2020). Snipers is his first film to be entirely set on an actual battlefield – the Korean War – though it’s not actually about that war. Dealing with a tiny sideshow in a larger conflict, the film easily fits into Zhang’s body of work, more a psychological drama in a high-pressure situation than a routine bang-bang war movie.
Shot in northeast China in early 2021, it was originally to have been released on 30 Jul that year, just prior to Army Day. In the event, it’s gone out as a CNY 2022 attraction, directly against heavyweights like The Battle at Lake Changjin II 长津湖之水门桥 (ironically also set during the Korean War), and taken just a solid RMB385 million in its first 10 days – a eighth of Changjin II’s hawl and the lowest of the big five live-action attractions. [Final tally was RMB608 million, placing it fourth, just above Only Fools Rush In.]
It’s only the third of Zhang’s 20-odd films which he’s officially co-directed, the others being aeroplane hostage drama Codename Cougar 代号‘美洲豹’ (1988) and costume drama Ju Dou 菊豆 (1990), both with Yang Fengliang 杨凤良, an assistant director of the period. Co-director this time is Zhang’s elder daughter, Zhang Mo 张末, 38, who went to high school and on to higher education in the US, and has worked as an editor and/or assistant director on several of her father’s films, as well as directing, co-writing and editing the fluffy rom-com Suddenly Seventeen 28岁未成年 (2016). It seems likely she was specially involved in the English-language scenes with the US snipers, and thus given a co-directing credit. Whatever the case, Snipers is the first Mainland film to make a western enemy at least half-credible and with fairly natural dialogue – at least until the the maniacal finale where the usual stereotypes reassert themselves.
Based on an original script by Chen Yu, 50, a Zhejiang-born writer-director who made the Huang Bo 黄渤 comedy The Story of David 蛋烧饭 (2011), as well as many shorts, and also wrote Zhang’s yet-to-be-released crime drama Under the Light 坚如磐石 and yet-to-be-shot costume picture Full River Red 满江红, the film gets straight down to business after a short intro of newsreel footage. The time is the winter of 1952, during a stand-off in the Korean War when the (Chinese) People’s Volunteer Army started a campaign of sniper and small-scale artillery attacks. The Fifth Squad, led by the legendary Liu Wenwu, aka Grim Reaper, is ordered to rescue two Chinese spies who’ve been ambushed nearby. When they reach the location and see the bodies they realise they’ve been led into a trap prepared by an obsessive US sniper who’s determined to get Li Wenwu’s scalp.
Most of the action in the first hour is cat-and-mouse between the two sniper squads as they pick each other off and the Chinese try to retrieve the heavily wounded body of one spy from the small valley between them. As in many war films where the protagonists are just heavily-garbed figures in a landscape, the individual Chinese snipers are slow to register, apart from leader Li Wenwu, typically underplayed by Zhang Yu 章宇 (the protagonist in Back to the Wharf 风平浪静, 2020) in a nice piece of counter-casting against iron-jawed types, and the young, emotional lead Chen Dayong, convincingly played by Hebei-born Chen Yongsheng 陈永胜, 23, in his first leading role. Among the smaller number of US snipers, several of whom quickly emerge as personalities, New York-born Jonathan Kos-Read 曹操, 48, the Mainland industry’s longtime favourite foreigner, gets his teeth well sunk into his biggest role to date as the obsessive Yank marksman.
In building the drama on such a small stage, Zhang’s equal partner is his regular d.p. Zhao Xiaoding 赵小丁, whose widescreen photography is almost a monochrome palette of white snow and black rubble, flecked by the ochrish skin tones of the snipers’ faces. Unfortunately, the gritty realism is occasionally destroyed by VFX following speeding (Chinese) bullets to their mark – almost a preview of the film’s third act in which heavy artillery is brought in and, as things boil down to a one-on-one combat, the action becomes way more filmy and less realistic. If Zhang had held his nerve and gone for a less flashy finale, Snipers could have been a major movie instead of just an interesting one.
Occasional off-screen narration that explains what is going on could have been dispensed with, not least because it signals that at least one Chinese survived the encounter. Action staging by Fu Xiaojie 傅小杰, who worked on both The Eight Hundred 八佰 (2020) and The Sacrifice 金刚川 (2020), is believable and cinematically dynamic. Music by the experienced Dong Dongdong 董冬冬 is either heroic or motoric, and does its job without being memorable in any way; copious use, among the Chinese snipers, is made of songs to buoy spirits. Editing by Li Yongyi 李永一 (The Dead End 烈日灼心, 2015; Cock and Bull 追凶者也, 2016; Cliff Walkers) brings the whole thing in at a tight 95 minutes.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Enlight Media (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Beijing Cheering Times Culture & Entertainment (CN), Qingdao Yunshang Film (CN), Beijing Lifeng Culture Development (CN), iQiyi Pictures (CN), Beijing Funshine Culture Media (CN), Beijing Hooz Media (CN), Changchun Film Studio Group (CN).
Script: Chen Yu, Zhang Yimou. Photography: Zhao Xiaoding. Editing: Li Yongyi. Music: Dong Dongdong. Music direction: Chen Xi. Art direction: Lin Mu. Styling: Chen Minzheng. Sound: Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan. Action: Fu Xiaojie. Visual effects: Wang Xinghui.
Cast: Chen Yongsheng (Chen Dayong), Zhang Yu (Liu Wenwu, squad leader), Jonathan Kos-Read (John), Scotty Cox (Jack), Liu Yitie (Liangliang), Huang Yan (Mi Lao’er), Zhao Hucheng (Zhu Yuan), Wang Ziyi (Xiaoxu), Chen Mingyang (Pangdun), Wang Naixun (Wang Zhongyi), Andrew Donnelly (Williams, US army captain), Nathaniel Boyd (Nate), Zhang Yi (company commander), Lin Boyang (female reporter), Cheng Hongxin (Sun Xi), Li Wencong (Lvwazi), Dai Wenbo (Gao Jun), Li Kun (Niu Gui), Pierre Bourdaud (Andrew), Kevin Lee (Russ), Daniel Manwaring (Dan), Kenan Heppe (Mark), Wang Youming (male reporter), Kenton Van Dunk (US adjutant).
Release: China, 1 Feb 2022.