A Guilty Conscience

毒舌大状

Hong Kong/China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 133 mins.

Director: Wu Weilun 吴炜伦 [Jack Ng].

Rating: 7/10.

Well-written, well-cast Hong Kong courtroom drama centred on a flawed lawyer is thoroughly involving without being at all innovative or original.

STORY

Hong Kong, 2002, spring. Lin Liangshui (Huang Zihua) is a shar-tongued, middle-aged magistrate handling small cases in the Guantang [Kwun Tung] law courts, Kowloon; bored with his job, he deliberately arrives late in court, just for the hell of it. After receiving notice that he’s to be transferred to become presiding magistrate at the Obscene Articles Tribunal, he leaves his government job in frustration and joins a private law firm, run by old friend T.K. He (Gu Dezhao), as a defence lawyer. He’s given the case of a onetime international super-model and single mother, Zeng Jie’er (Wang Danni), who’s accused of child abuse involving her seven-year-old mute daughter Zeng Yunyue (Mo Ran), who is in hospital in a coma. Lin Liangshui is teamed by T.K. He with a younger lawyer in the firm, Fang Jiajun (Yang Siyong), to whom he is rather condescending; he also thinks the case itself is unimportant. Zeng Jie’er tells them she had put her daughter to bed and then had quite a lot to drink in her bedroom; she later found her daughter unconscious on the lounge floor, with a bloody head injury. She denies attacking her daughter but says there was no one else in the house that evening, to her knowledge. Lin Liangshui doesn’t take the trial seriously, which angers Fang Jiajun. But then the prosecution produces a witness, security guard Chen Qiu (Mai Ziyun), who says he saw through the window someone beating the child when he was doing his rounds that evening. That night Lin Liangshui goes drinking with T.K. He and the latter’s dodgy business pals but is summoned to the hospital by Fang Jiajun, who says the daughter has just woken from her coma. The daughter denies it was her mother who beat her, but doesn’t get a chance to describe who it really was. Soon afterwards she dies. The case against Zeng Jie’er is now changed from child abuse to manslaughter. Zeng Jie’er finally admits to Lin Liangshui that her married lover (and father of the child), celebrity doctor Zhong Jingyi (Bai Tiannan), was in her home that evening but was recording a TV programme when their daughter was attacked; he arrived later, found the front door open, and saw the young girl unconscious on the floor. Zhong Jingyi confirms this to Lin Liangshui, but the latter omits to take an official statement. Meanwhile, the Zhong family – one of Hong Kong’s richest and most powerful, and run by matriarch Zhong Lin Yiyi (Hong Lin Xiaozhan) – calls in its legal advisor, Dong Weiguo (Wang Minde), who sets about fixing the case, which so far has received no press coverage because of the Zhong family’s influence. Zhong Lin Yiyi is particularly keen to protect the family’ reputation, and especially that of her son’s jealous wife, Zhong Nianhua (Liao Ziyu), who knew all about Zeng Jie’er. On the stand, Zhong Jingyi unexpectedly states the house’s front door was closed and he used his own key to enter. Lin Liangshui’s defence – that anyone could have come in through the open door and attacked the girl – collapses. Zeng Jie’er is sentenced to 17 years in prison and attempts suicide. Lin Liangshui goes on a guilty bender. Two years later, in 2004, Lin Liangshui is running his own small business from a cramped fifth-floor office, with help from his previous assistant Prince (He Qihua). He hears that former security guard Chen Qiu has returned to Hong Kong for cancer treatment and tried to commit suicide, leaving a note that he regretted lying in court about Zeng Jie’er. After Chen Qiu dies, Lin Liangshui begs Fang Jiajun to appeal the case with him. After pressure from others, she finally agrees, and Zeng Jie’er grudgingly allows the two defence lawyers a second chance even though she’ll stay in prison for life if she loses. In response, Dong Weiguo recommends to the Zhong family that it appoints Jin Yuanshan (Xie Junhao) as prosecuting council, a lawyer who is both very tough and a stickler for procedure. As Dong Weiguo continues to manipulate things behind the scenes, both sides play dirty.

REVIEW

Longtime Hong Kong scriptwriter Wu Weilun 吴炜伦 [Jack Ng] – best known for a string of films with Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam], from Hit Team 重装警察 (2001) to That Demon Within 魔警 (2014) – makes an interesting debut as a writer-director with courtroom drama A Guilty Conscience 毒舌大状. Starring veteran Hong Kong stand-up comic Huang Zihua 黄子华 [Dayo Wong] as a lackadaisical, self-centred lawyer whose life and attitudes are changed by a case of child manslaughter, it’s a well-written production, driven by dialogue and character, that fully justifies its 2¼-hour running time while still staying firmly within Hong Kong genre conventions. Released over Chinese New Year, it went on to become the biggest-grossing local film in Hong Kong’s history, breaking through the HK$100 million barrier (previously managed only by US blockbusters) to take HK$113 million, way ahead of the territory’s all-time no. 2 local grosser Warriors of Future 明日战记 (2022, HK$82 million). Especially coming on the heels of relationships comedy Table for Six 饭戏攻心 (2022, HK$77 million, no. 3), it’s completely reinvented Huang, 62, as a major film star. In the Mainland the co-production took a politely solid RMB185 million.

Looking 20 years younger than his actual age, Huang plays the lawyer Lin Liangshui (literally, “Coolwater Lin”), with a mixture of blithe comedy and genuine emotion, depending on the situation, and, though much less sympathetic on paper than his photographer/elder brother character in Table for Six, manages to carry the viewer with him as he goes through a moral/spiritual regeneration following a professional blunder. When the viewer first sees him, he’s a bored, smalltime magistrate who gets his kicks out of deliberately keeping his court waiting. When he receives notice of a posting to an obscure tribunal, he finally joins the private sector, after being offered a potentially lucrative job by an old lawyer friend with some shady business connections (comedy director Gu Dezhao 谷德昭 [Vincent Kok], relishing a guest role). Lin Liangshui’s first case, which he doesn’t take seriously, centres on a child-abuse charge, later changed to manslaughter, against a onetime super-model who’s accused of beating her seven-year-old daughter into unconsciousness. Due to sloppy work by Lin Liangshui, the accused ends up with a hefty jail sentence, and only a couple of years later does a reformed Lin Liangshui get a chance to re-try the case and prove her innocence.

Safely set back in 2002-04, only a few years after the handover to the Mainland, the film draws a picture of a judiciary and police force that is open to persuasion from the rich and influential – against which the now-principled Lin Liangshui finds himself pitted. In other words, it’s the good old money-talks Hong Kong we’re all used to in traditional crime movies. There’s nothing especially original here, and some of the behaviour in court (with a noticeably indulgent female judge) and the plot twists (including Lin Liangshui’s enemies having him arrested to get him off the case) are hardly believable. But it’s at least done with the emphasis on dialogue rather than schlocky action, which helps to give the story some grounding in reality. In short, A Guilty Conscience is better than Christmas Rose 圣诞玫瑰 (2013) but no Silent Witness 全民目击 (2013) – though at times it promises to come close.

Chinese-American veteran Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong], acting mostly in English as usual, silkily represents the forces of the corrupt establishment in a role often played by actors like Qin Pei 秦沛 [Paul Chun]. He’s stylishly abetted by Malaysian-born actress-model Liao Ziyu 廖子妤 as a rich, jealous wife and Xie Junhao 谢君豪 as a hard-arsed prosecution lawyer who’s not above a bit of twinkly-eyed revenge on his overbearing boss.

Batting on the righteous side, 33-year-old Wang Danni 王丹妮 – who played the late singer Mei Yanfang 梅艳芳 [Anita Mui] in Anita 梅艳芳 (2021), director Wu’s last script – is notably classy as the wronged, angry defendant, while onetime TV presenter Yang Siyong 杨偲泳, 29, in her first substantial role, actually manages to make a quiet mark opposite the often flamboyant Huang as Lin Liangshui’s conscientious colleague, a potentially Goody Two-Shoes role that ends up as much more. On the sidelines, He Qihua 何启华, 32, from Cantopop boyband Error, is a likeable presence as Lin Lianghsui’s sunny assistant.

Most of the above characters are genre stereotypes, and some (like Liao’s icily jealous wife) would have benefited from more development. However, their familiarity is masked by the script’s overall construction, which has an architecture that’s rare in contemporary Chinese, and especially Hong Kong, cinema. The first half-hour, which deals with the original case in 2002, functions as purely an intro to the main story, but an intro with its own dynamic all the same. The remaining 100 minutes, set in 2004, are all the more gripping thanks to the extensive backgrounding, and they never let the parallel strand of Lin Liangshui’s rather textbook redemption take precedence over the main legal drama. The perpetrator of the crime is actually revealed some 70 minutes into the film; but the real drama comes from the defence lawyers being able to prove that person’s guilt, as well as peeling away all the layers in what is not as simple a case as originally seemed. As a result, while never being innovative or especially original, the movie justifies its generous running time, and comes up with a genuinely moving (if expected) finale.

Technically, it’s just okay, with no special gloss or look, despite the presence of some veteran crew (d.p. Pan Yaoming 潘耀明 [Anthony Pun], editor Chen Qihe 陈祺合 [Chan Ki-hop], styling advisor Xi Zhongwen 奚仲文 [Yee Chung-man]) and even the musical score is insignificant. The film’s original Hong Kong title means “The Sharp-Tongued Barrister”; for Mainland release its title was amended to 毒舌律师 (“The Sharp-Tongued Lawyer”), as China does not have the barrister/solicitor system.

CREDITS

Presented by Edko Films (HK), Irresistible Beta (HK), Alibaba Pictures Entertainment Media (CN), Film Development Fund (HK). Produced by Edko Films (HK).

Script: Wu Weilun [Jack Ng], Zhang Qingyun, Lin Weiwen. Photography: Pan Yaoming [Anthony Pun]. Editing: Chen Qihe [Chan Ki-hop]. Music: Liao Yingchen, Ou Leheng, Zhang Jianren. Art direction: Huo Peishi. Costume design: Chen Baoxin. Styling advice: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Visual effects: Yu Guoliang, Lin Junyu.

Cast: Huang Zihua [Dayo Wong] (Lin Liangshui/Adrian), Xie Junhao (Jin Yuanshan), Wang Danni (Zeng Jie’er/Jolene), Liao Ziyu (Zhong Nianhua/Victoria), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (Dong Weiguo/James), He Qihua (Taizi/Prince), Yang Siyong (Fang Jiajun/Evelyn), Bai Tiannan (Zhong Jingyi/Desmond), Lin Baoyi [Bowie Lam] (Lu Dingheng, ICAC assistant commissioner), Gu Dezhao [Vincent Kok] (T.K. He, head of law firm), Luo Xiaoyong (Ben, Dong Weiguo’s assistant), Mo Ran (Zeng Yunyue/Elsa, Zeng Jie’er’s daughter), Xu Haochang (Marco, business friend of T.K. He), Hong Lin Xiaozhan (Zhong Lin Yiyi, Zhong Jingui’s mother), Han Yuxia (high-court re-trial judge), Mai Ziyun (Chen Qiu, Zeng Jie’er’s neighbour), Zhen Maoqiang (Zhang Dehe, senior police officer), Chen Yuxian (corrupt policeman), Zhou Zhihui (voice of Jin Yuanshan’s teacher), Mai Zhenjiang (high-court trial judge), Huang Junhao (Wilson, business friend of T.K. He), Li Ze’en (private detective), Lei Dewei (Da Bao, gangster), Liang Haokai (Liang, original prosecutor of Zeng Jie’er), Wu Ruiting (Patrick, original supervising prosecutor).

Release: Hong Kong, 21 Jan 2023; China, 24 Feb 2023.