The Witness

我是证人

China/South Korea, 2015, colour, 2:35:1, 112 mins.

Director: An Sang-hun  안상훈 | 安尚勋.

Rating: 5/10.

Chinese remake of South Korean thriller Blind is no improvement on the original.

STORY

Yanzhou municipality, northern China, April 2015. Three years ago, after over-reacting and arresting her student step-brother Liang Cong (Liu Ruilin), trainee policewoman Lu Xiaoxing (Yang Mi) is involved in a car crash in which she loses her vision and he dies. Now blind and slowly getting used to living with a guide dog, Lu Xiaoxing is told the police force cannot take her back as she showed a fatal lack of judgement. A college student, Zheng Huiying, has been kidnapped and is being held in a cellar. After a visit to her mother’s house, Lu Xiaoxing rings for a taxi in the rain and is picked up by a driver, Tang Zhen (Zhu Yawen), who hits a young woman pedestrian in the dark. He tells Lu Xiaoxing it was just a dog, but Lu Xiaoxing becomes suspicious and, after an argument, is left in the rain when he drives off. She reports the incident at a police station to a detective, Lu Li (Wang Jingchun). A cocky young teenager, Lin Chong (Lu Han), comes forward as a witness and says he can identify the car, hoping to claim the reward money for the missing student’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the driver kidnaps another young woman, party girl Yu Lu, 25. He subsequently tries to kill Lin Chong but only succeeds in injuring him. After visiting Lin Chong in hospital as he’s being discharged, Lu Xiaoxing is followed by Tang Zhen as she takes a bus home alone.

REVIEW

Though it does have a few memorable moments, serial-killer thriller The Witness 我是证人  is no improvement on the South Korean original, despite having the same director, An Sang-hun 안상훈 | 安尚勋 , at the helm and a name Mainland actress, Yang Mi 杨幂, in the lead role. Closely following the 2011 original, Blind 블라인드, without being a shot-for-shot remake, the film has many of the same flaws: a strong set-up but a failure to build cumulative tension and realise the opening potential, a shortage of real shocks, and a lack of any credible psychology in the villain. Its strongest moments are those of the original – an atmospheric sequence when the blind heroine is first given a lift in the rain by the killer, and the midway setpiece where she’s followed on public transport by him – as are its weaknesses, such as a finale that doesn’t fully exploit the heroine’s blindness and sense of claustrophobia. Like the original film, it simply isn’t up there with two of the great blind-heroine thrillers, Wait Until Dark (1967) with Audrey Hepburn and Blind Terror (1971) with Mia Farrow.

That’s mainly the fault of the screenplay, here re-tooled by Mainland writer-actor-film critic Gu Xiaobai 顾小白, 38, who’s worked on both arty stuff (The Red Awn 红色康拜因, 2007; Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂树之恋, 2010; People Mountain People Sea 人山人海, 2011) as well as genre material (TVD Evil Minds 心理罪, 2015). Along with An and original producer Yun Chang-eob 윤창업 | 尹昌业, Gu has introduced small changes, such as making the heroine the accidental “murderer” of her step-brother in the car crash in which she loses her sight, and changing her from being an orphan to a daughter estranged from her mother. But these changes don’t improve on the original. Quite the opposite: the relationship between mother and daughter is hardly explored, and the fact that the heroine feels guilty for her step-brother’s death results in some ridiculous moments (peppered with flashbacks) where the killer tries to persuade her she’s just like him, a sibling-murderer.

Set in the fictional north-China metropolis of Yanzhou 燕州, the film is very smooth on a technical level but has no particular sense of place. Like other South Korean directors who have shot in the Mainland but remain uncomfortable working with locals – An Byeong-gi 안병기 | 安兵基 (Bunshinsaba 笔仙, 2012), Oh Gi-hwan 오기환 | 吴基桓 (A Wedding Invitation 分手合约, 2013) – An has imported his own key crew, including the original’s d.p. Son Weon-ho 손원호 | 孙源镐, art director Gim Seong-gyu 김성규 | 金成规 and action choreographer Gweon Seung-gu 권승구 | 权承九, as well as re-using editor Shin Min-gyeong 신민경 | 申敏璟 and composer Song Jun-seok 송준석. Not surprisingly, the result has the same coolly-tooled look of a South Korean movie rather than the more grounded feel of a real Chinese production, with the Mainland cast moving through but not really connected with the setting.

This gives a slightly unreal flavour to the whole film, and robs it of real emotion. In her biggest attempt to break away from her background in cute roles and rom-coms, squeaky-voiced actress Yang, now almost 30, doesn’t really convince as a former trainee policewoman, though her sightless acting is believable. Blind also represented a major career change for South Korean actress Gim Ha-neul 김하늘 | 金荷娜, then in her early 30s, away from cute roles, and she pretty much rose to the challenge, helped by her older, more weathered looks. In comparison, Yang still lacks the screen presence – both physical and acting – to carry a whole movie.

She does, however, establish some chemistry with both Wang Jingchun 王景春 (the cop in To Live and Die in Ordos 警察日记, 2013; the laundry owner in Black Coal, Thin Ice 白日焰火, 2014), who’s characterful as the policeman who comes to believe her story, and young Chinese singer Lu Han 鹿晗 (once of South Korean-Chinese boyband EXO) who, as in Miss Granny 重返20岁 (2015, another China remake of a South Korean original), scales back his prettiness here as a cocky young kid who finally bonds with Yang’s heroine. As the serial killer, Zhu Yawen 朱亚文 can’t flesh out his thinly-written character into much, while young TV drama actress Li Xirui 李溪芮, in her film debut, pops up briefly in a role that sets her up as a key supporting character (a policewoman from the same academy as the heroine) and then just dumps her.

Shin’s editing is fine, generating some tension in the midway chase sequence and the start of the finale, but Song’s score contributes nothing. Visual effects portraying the heroine’s blindness are much more extensive than in the original, and partly compensate for the film’s coolness.

CREDITS

Presented by New Clues Film (CN), Jaywalk Studio (CN), Youth Enlight (CN). Produced by MoonWatcher (SK), New Clues Film (CN), Jaywalk Studio (CN), Huaxin Film Distribution (CN).

Script: Gu Xiaobai, Yun Chang-eob, An Sang-hun. Original script: Choi Min-seok, Yun Chang-seob, An Sang-hun. Photography: Son Weon-ho. Editing: Shin Min-gyeong. Music: Song Jun-seok. Art direction: Gim Seong-gyu. Sound: Gong Tae-weon. Action: Gweon Seung-gu. Special effects: Cai Kuigang. Visual effects: Jo Yi-seok.

Cast: Yang Mi (Lu Xiaoxing), Lu Han (Lin Chong), Wang Jingchun (Lu Li, police captain), Zhu Yawen (Tang Zhen), Liu Ruilin (Liang Cong, Lu Xiaoxing’s younger stepbrother), Lai Yi (Four Eyes, Lu Li’s assistant), Li Xirui (Gao Ya’nan), Xu Lingyue (Tang Qian, Tang Zhen’s younger sister), Chai Wei (young Lu Xiaoxing).

Release: China, 30 Oct 2015; South Korea, 14 Sep 2016.