Article 20

第二十条

China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 139 mins.

Director: Zhang Yimou 张艺谋.

Rating: 6/10.

Comedy-drama, set among a city’s public prosecutors, is entertaining enough due to its high-profile cast, but is also over-long and bumpily constructed.

STORY

Yong’en city, somewhere in northern China, the present day. A group of angry lorry drivers from Kang Village district blocks the entrance to Yong’en City People’s Procuratorate in protest about the six-month delay in prosecuting Wang Yongqiang (Pan Binlong) for the attempted murder of their boss, local loan-shark Liu Wenjing (Aruna), whom he stabbed 26 times. Liu Wenjing is still in a coma in hospital, and the drivers haven’t been paid for months. Wang Yongqiang had borrowed money from Liu Wenjing and, during one of several debt-collection visits, Liu Wenqing had raped his deaf-mute wife, Hao Xiuping (Zhao Liying) on 5 Apr. As Liu Wenqing left, Wang Haoqiang had attacked him by his car in the alley, though part of the event was outside the range of a nearby security camera. The decision whether to prosecute Wang Yongqiang has been held up by bureaucratic hair-splitting – as it involves the concept of “justifiable defence” enshrined in Article 20, Section 1, of the PRC’s Criminal Law but rarely employed as a defence – and the knife that administered most of the wounds has still not been found. Han Ming (Liu Jiayin), a prosecutor on temporary assignment to Yong’en city, comes out and calms the lorry drivers down. Meanwhile, his own son, teenager Han Yuchen (Liu Yaowen), is in trouble at his high school for getting into a fight with fellow pupil Zhang Ke (Shi Pengyuan) who was bullying another student. Unfortunately for Han Yuchen, Zhang Ke is the son of the director of the school’s education department (Zhang Yi). Han Ming and his wife Li Maojuan (Ma Li) try to smooth the waters but Han Yuchen refuses to apologise, as he feels he was in the right. At work, Han Ming ends up being put onto the Wang Yongqiang case by deputy prosector Tian Yu (Wang Xiao), who feels he can do a better job than prosecutor Lv Lingling (Gao Ye) has done so far. Tian Yu and Lv Lingling were once in a relationship, back in their college days; despite her annoyance at being moved aside, the two of them work together on the case. Li Maojuan becomes jealous, though she hides it from Lv Lingling under an exaggerated display of friendship. After having had no apology from Han Yuchen for over two days, Zhang Ke’s father files a charge against him at the local police station. Han Ming and his wife face Zhang and his son across the table but are interrupted by a call from Lv Lingling that Wang Yongqiang’s wife has disappeared. While following some of Liu Wenjing’s men, Han Ming and Lv Lingling manage to prevent the kidnpping of Hao Xiuping’s young daughter, Juanjuan (Chen Xuanfei). It turns out that the men are paid by Liu Wenjing’s father, Liu Bingren (Fan Wei), who wants to take the girl back to Kang Village. Lv Lingling arranges for Juanjuan and her mother to stay in a small hotel for their safety. But then Han Ming hears that Liu Wenjing has just died in the county hospital.

REVIEW

Another Chinese New Year, another Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 blockbuster – this time the comedy-drama Article 20 第二十条, superficially about a section in the PRC’s Criminal Code centring on an individual’s right to “justifiable self-defence” but actually an excuse for a lot of well-known names to either pop up in cameos or engage in lengthy comic arguments. (Not surprisingly, the film production arm of Beijing comedy troupe Ma Hua FunAge 开心麻花 is among the investors, and several of its regulars are among the cast.) As it’s a CNY movie, it all ends happily; and as it’s co-financed by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, among whose employees it’s largely set, it all ends with justice well served. It would be easy to be cynical about Article 20: like his last CNY movie, Full River Red 满江红 (2023), it doesn’t need to be well over two hours, and in addition it lacks a strong core structure; but for a lot of the time it’s perfectly entertaining thanks to the high-profile cast. However, it failed to replicate Full River Red’s massive hawl of RMB4.54 billion at the CNY box office, taking “only” a very hunky RMB2.45 billion, for third place behind YOLO 热辣滚烫 and Pegasus 2 飞驰人生2, each with some RMB3.4 billion.

The screenplay, lead written by Li Meng 李萌 (twisty crime drama Vortex 铤而走险, 2019) in his first collaboration with Zhang, throws the audience in medias res, as lorry drivers block the entrance to the procuratorate building in the fictional northern city of Yong’en. They’re protesting the delay over bringing to justice the man, Wang Yongqiang, who stabbed their boss, Liu Wenjing, currently in a coma in the county hospital. Various public prosecutors come out and demand they move their lorries, but the protestors stand firm. In fact, the latter turn out to be the bad guys and the former are hardly free of blame: Liu is a loan shark who had raped Wang’s deaf-mute wife, and the whole case has been dragging on for six months thanks to procedural hair-splittinging at the procuratorate. It’s only when Han Ming, a prosecutor on short-term relocation to the city, arrives and calms everyone down that the film really begins.

The scene is a roundabout way of introducing the main character, Han Ming, a chronic avoider of conflict in both his professional and his private life. He soon finds himself saddled with the case, which revolves round Wang Yongqiang’s right (or otherwise) to self-defence – as stipulated in the criminal code but almost never tested in practice. Han Ming’s superiors are happy to pass the hot potato over to him; less happy is Lv Lingling, the prosecutor who’s been in charge of the case so far – an idealist among a group of careerist colleagues and also, by chance, Han Ming’s onetime girlfriend back in college days. To avoid conflict, Han Ming includes her in his investigation – which then raises the hackles of his wife, who thinks they’re having an affaire. On top of everything, Han Ming’s teenage son is refusing to apologise for defending a fellow pupil against a school bully; as the bully is the son of the school’s head of education, Han Ming’s anti-conflict talents are again required.

It soon becomes clear that, despite its title, Article 20 is only peripherally about the legalistic wrangles of the Wang Yongqiang case. It’s much more about avoiding conflict in general, especially in a society in which personal/professional connections and rank are still important and can potentially override the strict letter of the law. But the script by Li and Zhang (plus newcomer Wang Tianyi 王天毅) avoids taking on this theme directly, instead focusing more on the relationship between Han Ming and his wife, whose daily squabbles at home come to dominate the film in an entertaining – if finally excessive – way.

A subtle, low-key talent who’s only recently come into his own on the big screen, Lei Jiayin 雷佳音, 40, also played the lead in one of the other big CNY attractions, LOLO. In the past few years he’s become a regular in Zhang’s films – the traitor in Cliff Walkers 悬崖之上 (2021), sickly but ruthless prime minister in Full River Red, geeky techie in Under the Light 坚如磐石 (2023) – and in Article 20 his talent for light comedy is given full rein as the wimpish but likeable husband who can talk himself out of any situation (almost). He’s paired with experienced comedienne (and Ma Hu FunAge stalwart) Ma Li 马丽, 41, as his naggy and suspicious working-class wife. Their rapidly delivered dialogue, with each trading verbal parries and blows like veteran boxers, motors the movie and provides some of its funniest moments. But in the final analysis, and however cleverly written, their scenes don’t actually progress the film or its characters, and after an hour or so start to become just repetitive intervals. More rewarding in the long term is the much subtler relationship between Han Ming and onetime girlfriend Lv Lingling, with actress Gao Ye 高叶 (a notable support in films like Lethal Hostage 边境风云, 2012, Lost, Found 找到你, 2018, and Wild Grass 荞麦疯长, 2020) always suggesting more than she ever says.

Along the way, well-known names pop up here and there: comedian Qiao Shan 乔杉 in a funny cameo as an avaricious shopkeeper, veteran comic Fan Wei 范伟 as the villain’s father, lantern-faced Yu Hewei 于和伟 as a prosecutor, and so on. Meanwhile, the various strands thrown out during the first half-hour hang in the wind: the son’s school troubles are kind of resolved, a further problem with Wang Yongqiang’s wife and daughter is kind of settled, and other, smaller strands come and go. It’s not until the end of the film that Wang Yongqiang’s case is properly resolved, almost as an afterthought – and not by any legalistic wrangling or considered arguments but by a long, impassioned speech by Han Ming himself that’s a kind of deus ex machina simply appealing to the emotions.

Amid the screenplay’s bumpy construction, other performances also provide some stability. Strong character actors such as Chen Minghao 陈明昊 (the Big Boss in Ma Hua FunAge comedy Too Cool to Kill 这个杀手不太冷静, 2022) provides a quietly droll contrast to Ma Li as her elder brother; Wang Xiao 王骁, often playing officials or military, is smooth as the city’s deputy prosecutor who always takes the easy path; and actress-singer Zhao Liying 赵丽颖, 36, more often seen on TV but here third-billed, is genuinely touching as Wang Yongqiang’s deaf-mute wife, her most substantial big-screen role to date.

Technical credits are solid and unflashy, with Zhang’s regular d.p. Zhao Xiaoding 赵小丁 bringing no special look to any of the film’s various components. The score by Zhao Lin 赵麟 (Youth 芳华, 2017), largely in the second half, is disappointingly obvious and sentimental. The film was shot in summer 2023 in Langfang city, Hebei province, just adjacent to Beijing.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Centre for Film & TV of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (CN), Youth Enlight (Yangzhou) Pictures (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), China Film (CN), Beijing Lifeng Culture Development (CN), Shanghai Guangjing Pictures (CN), Shanghai Mini Enlight Pictures (CN), Zhejiang FunAge Pictures (CN), Beijing TF Entertainment (CN), Beijing Qiuhao Pictures (CN), MetaWay Art & Technology (CN).

Script: Li Meng, Zhang Yimou, Wang Tianyi. Story: Li Meng, Xi Yuchen, Ni Shengxiong. Photography: Zhao Xiaoding. Editing: Li Yongyi. Music: Zhao Lin. Art direction: Lin Mu. Costumes: Liu Xiaochang. Styling: Chen Minzheng, Ren Huijie. Sound: Chen Ting, Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan. Action: Fu Xiaojie. Visual effects: Zhang Wei.

Cast: Lei Jiayin (Han Ming), Ma Li (Li Maojuan, Han Ming’s wife), Zhao Liying (Hao Xiuping, Wang Yongqiang’s wife), Gao Ye (Lv Lingling), Liu Yaowen (Han Yuchen, Han Ming’s son), Chen Minghao (Li Maoquan, Li Maojuan’s elder brother), Wang Xiao (Tian Yu, deputy chief prosecutor), Pan Binlong (Wang Yongqiang), Zhang Yi (Zhang, education department director), Fan Wei (Liu Bingren, Liu Wenjing’s father), Yu Hewei (Wang, prosecutor), Xu Yajun (Cao, secretary), Li Naiwen (Chen, high-school teacher), Yang Haoyu (Zhang Guisheng), Xu Jingya (Yaya, Zhang Guisheng’s daughter), Liu Yitie (Xiaowang), Chen Xuanfei (Juanjuan, Hao Xiuping’s young daughter), Jiang Qiming (Chen, lawyer), Aruna (Liu Wenjing), Qiao Shan (Cao, shop owner), Jiang Shimeng (shop owner’s wife), Shi Pengyuan (Zhang Ke, Zhang’s son), Duo Xi (National People’s Congress representative), Wang Peilu (cousin), Ding Yongdai (Zhao Ting), Li Xiaochuan (Da Yong), Yang Yiwei (local police station officer), Xu Wenhe (massage chair salesman), Song Muzi (construction site guard).

Release: China, 10 Feb 2024.