Bloody Daisy
追凶十九年
China, 2019, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 104 mins.
Director: Xu Xiangyun 徐翔云.
Rating: 5/10.
Smalltown serial-killer mystery is low on detection and action, more just a so-so buddy movie.
STORY
Hongzhou township, somewhere in northern China, 2018. Police detective He Chen (Song Ningfeng) and his partner enter a garage, outside which is a motorcycle with a flower pattern on it. The two detectives separate to search the premises; shortly afterwards, He Chen’s body crashes out of an upstairs window onto a car’s roof. As he lies there, He Chen reflects on how he has been chasing the same killer for 19 years, and his mind goes back to 1999. (Then, a young woman, He Yan, the member of an opera troupe, had been found raped and murdered by the Sang river, with a flower pattern carved into her back. Police chief Gao [Guo Yongzhen] had assigned the case to detective Liu Yibo [Wang Longzheng], who was eager for promotion to deputy police chief, though Gao had doubts about Liu Yibo’s maverick behaviour. He Yan’s older brother, He Chen, had beaten up her boyfriend [Teng Zhe] as he was convinced he was the murderer; but Liu Yibo found he was innocent. Three years later the body of another woman, 22-year-old Gao Yufen, had been found with the same pattern cut into her belly. Liu Yibo found himself partnered with He Chen, who was now a police detective and had been transferred to the case. Though he was still obsessed with finding his sister’s killer, He Chen was now cool, calm and rational in his police work, unlike Liu Yibo who never seemed to relax and was also under pressure from his wife, Guo Jing [Huang Lu], to transfer to the big city. Investigations by the two detectives, who finally reached an understanding, led nowhere. The clue of the flower pattern also yielded no answers. A third victim was then found, divorcee Shen Lili, but her gambler boyfriend, Dongzi [Ma Jiamayao], had a solid alibi. Tensions were growing in Liu Yibo’s marriage, not helped by their failure to have a child, even though Liu Yibo was taking medicine for his impotence. Then another victim had been found, married Zhang Mingming, with a footprint from the killer yielding a valuable clue that led the two detectives to a coal factory.)
REVIEW
Bloody Daisy 追凶十九年 is exactly what its Chinese title says on the can – “Chasing a Murderer for 19 Years.” This directing debut by scriptwriter Xu Xiangyun 徐翔云, 29, has its acting moments but increasingly falls between two stools as it can’t decide what it really is – a crime procedural, as police search for a serial killer in a small northern town, or an odd-couple buddy movie, as two detectives are thrown together by a case that stretches over almost two decades. Unfortunately, Daisy doesn’t really succeed on either front, and has litle action to fill the gaps, making it an initially interesting but finally so-what experience. Mainland box office, at RMB3 million, was negligible.
Xu’s writing experience, mostly on TVDs, has included the popular Dr. Qin Medical Examiner 法医秦明 (2016) series, but forensic work and even basic detection play little part in the film as the female corpses (all inscribed with a floral pattern) mount without any solutions in sight. The plot mostly revolves around a new victim being announced every now and then, and the main suspect being quickly found to have a cast-iron alibi – a structure that soon throws the audience’s interest away from the crimes and onto the two cops investigating them. Though neither is a major star, Wang Longzheng 王泷正, 39, and Song Ningfeng 宋宁峰, 38, do establish a weird chemistry that keeps the film motoring even when the plot is stuck in neutral. As the maverick of the two, Wang is fine as the easygoing, ever-smiling but slightly paranoid detective, while Song (the daughter’s boyfriend in Love Education 相爱相亲, 2017) gets surprising mileage out of his granite-faced, unemotional cop who’s actually the brother of the first victim. Between the two, indie icon Huang Lu 黄璐, 36, doesn’t have much to do as the wife of Wang’s character, apart from nag him for never coming home and not taking his impotency pills. Coincidentally, Wang and Huang previously played detective and wife in another serial-killer mystery, Vengeance Is Mine 六连煞 (2019), a slightly more successful riff on the genre that also had Huang largely in her default blank mode.
The script, co-credited to Shanghai writer Liu Ya 刘雅 (a regular collaborator with director Zhang Meng 张猛, Daisy‘s creative producer 监制), doesn’t try to deliberately misdirect the viewer like that of Vengeance, but is largely told in flashback and increasingly gives less and less details about the victims as the body count mounts – as if to underline the fact that the film isn’t really about police detection. There’s a slight twist around the time of the fourth murder, but the real finale and unmasking is almost throwaway, with no attempt at a believable motive or providing any background. Meanwhile, on the buddy-movie side, the relationship has long been stalled by events.
Set in a fictional northern town, and actually shot around Yangyuan county, Hebei province, west of Beijing, the film has a real feel for place in the widescreen photography by Li Zhigang 李志刚, which captures the cold light of a northern winter and the spare, flat landscape. Music by Hou Wenbo 侯文波 is largely atmospheric, with glassy, metallic timbres that convey a sense of threat generally missing in the screenplay. The end credits include a tribute to all Mainland police who have died in the line of duty.
CREDITS
Presented by Tencent Penguin Pictures (CN). Produced by Egg Culture (CN), Enjoyment.Film (CN).
Script: Xu Xiangyun, Liu Ya. Photography: Li Zhigang. Editing: Wang Peichong, Wang Tianqi. Music: Hou Wenbo. Art direction: Fu Yingzhang. Styling: Sun Yiran. Sound: Bian Yajun, Zhu Qianqian. Action: Zhang Shaoping. Executive direction: Xiao Zhiren.
Cast: Wang Longzheng (Liu Yibo), Song Ningfeng (He Chen), Huang Lu (Guo Jing), Guo Yongzhen (Gao, police chief), Ding Xihe (Xiaowang), Teng Zhe (He Yan’s boyfriend, barber), Wang Tianqi (Chen Sanbao, butcher), Li Keru (Gao Yubao, Gao Yufen’s younger sister), Ma Jiamayao (Dongzi, Shen Lili’s boyfriend), Wang Chaobei (Du Bin, man at coal factory), Zhang Baiqiao (Wang Dahai, village idiot), Jia Bo (bald man in brothel), Wu Meihui (Xu Na), Xu Xiangning (Zhao Jianhui).
Premiere: Pingyao Film Festival, 14 Oct 2019.
Release: China, 22 Nov 2019.