The Guilty Ones

你是凶手

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins.

Director: Wang Yu 王昱.

Rating: 6/10.

Remake of Korean kidnap drama Montage  marks a solid directing debut by Mainland d.p. Wang Yu.

STORY

A coastal city in Zhejiang province, eastern China, Sep 2016. Ten years after her young daughter Lingdang was kidnapped, and then died in a bungled ransom handover, Bai Lan (Song Jia) is still bitter at the failure of the original detective, Chen Hao (Wang Qianyuan), to solve the case and the subsequent closing of the file by the police. Bai Lan is now dying of lung cancer and regularly visits hospital for treatment; Chen Hao, who long ago retired from the force and has become a seafood salesman, still pursues the case in his own time, though he gets little thanks from Bai Lan. Visiting the scene of Lingdang’s death on the coastal road by Daqingshan – a location known only to the police of the time – Chen Hao finds some joss sticks, and the police grudgingly agree to let him continue his investigation with the help of an inexperienced young detective, Wang Xingxing (Li Jiuxiao). Security cameras show someone arrived to burn them early in the morning of 14 Sep, and Chen Hao also finds tyre tracks nearby. Wang Xingxing is transferred to the city’s main police force and Chen Hao continues on his own. He finds a car whose tyres match the tracks and chases the hooded driver to a noodle restaurant, but the latter escapes. When the police still refuse to officially re-open the case, Chen Hao burns all his files in disgust. Then one day a young girl, Li Zhuzhu, is kidnapped when out walking on the beach with her grandfather, Li Aijun (Feng Yuanzheng), a former physics teacher. A police team, led by Tian (Hu Ming) and including Wang Xingxing, waits for the kidnapper’s ransom call to the girl’s mother (Wang Sisi). Meanwhile, Bai Lan visits the noodle restaurant and finds an umbrella the kidnapper left behind. It belongs to a company selling healthcare products and, after bribing one of its salesmen to give her a list of clients, Bai Lan sends it to Chen Hao and asks him to trace their addresses. In the meantime, the kidnapper has demanded RMB400,000 ransom and, because of similarities between this case and Lingdang’s, Chen Hao is invited to join Tian’s team. The kidnapper is using exactly the same method for the ransom handover as a decade ago, involving a waste bin at a ferry terminal, so Chen Hao (and Wang Xingxing) are one step ahead of him this time.

REVIEW

Mainland d.p. Wang Yu 王昱, who’s worked for directors like Lou Ye 娄烨 (Suzhou River 苏州河, 2000), Tian Zhuangzhuang 田壮壮 (The Go Master 吴清源, 2006), Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯 (24 City 二十四城记, 2008) and Shang Jing 尚敬 (My Own Swordsman 武林外传, 2011) over the past two decades, makes a solid debut as a director with crime drama The Guilty Ones 你是凶手. A remake of the South Korean Montage 몽타주 (2013, see poster, left), written and directed by first-timer Jeong Geun-seob 정근섭, it hews pretty closely to the original while adding in plenty of nuances of its own in adapting the tone to a Mainland setting. After waiting several years for a theatrical release, the film finally appeared in late 2019 but made little impression at the box office (RMB48 million).

The initial driver in the original was that, after 15 years, the statute of limitations on a kidnapping case in which a young girl died was about to run out, forcing the original detective to make one last-ditch effort to solve it after finding a clue that the kidnapper may still be alive. With China having no equivalent statute, the main driver in the remake is the detective’s continuing shame (even after retiring from the force), plus the fact that the girl’s mother is now, 10 years later, dying from lung cancer.

This latter change results in scenes in which the mother (glumly played by Mainland actress Song Jia 宋佳, evoking little sympathy) is either lying on a hospital bed attached to a drip or actively pursuing the case herself outside – the former slowing the film down and the latter stretching credibility. In most respects the original is a cleaner and more straightforward telling of the story; the Chinese version, by new name Du Yu 杜语 (with “script advice” by Bejing Film Academy professor Wang Hongwei 王红卫 [Witness 目击者, 2012; No Man’s Land 无人区, 2013; Twenty 二十岁, 2018]), regurgitates whole sequences very closely, as well as keeping all the plot twists, but is generally darker and more atmospheric, with the characters more strung out emotionally and the plot more scrambled in its telling. Interestingly, this version has done nothing to iron out some of the original’s far-fetched coincidences and other weaknesses.

The different feel is down not just to the mother’s role being changed to a bitter cancer victim but also to the casting of hatchet-faced character actor Wang Qianyuan 王千源 as the detective. At the time of shooting (2016) Wang was slowly graduating from colourful supporting roles to more leading ones, and his extrovert playing of the maverick ex-cop who’s brought back by the police to solve a seemingly identical kidnapping watermarks the film from start to finish. The well-known Korean leads of the original version – actor Gim Sang-gyeong 김상경 | 金相庆 and actress Eom Jeong-hwa 엄정화 | 严正化 – had a more natural chemistry that was less filmy and ultimately more believable.

Handling his own widescreen photography, Wang Yu delivers a very smooth product, with the clean, sinuous lines of the coastal highway contrasting with the crowded, overcast city scenes. Top-class editing by veteran Zhou Xinxia 周新霞 and younger Qiao Aiyu 乔爱宇 (two of China’s finest), plus a fine score by Zhang Jian 张荐 that maintains a sense of threat and atmosphere, work alongside the camerawork, resulting in a tight, 90-minute drama – a half-hour shorter than the Korean original – that doesn’t lose its grip even when believability is being stretched.

The film was shot during the first half of 2016 and certified in mid-2017 but then waited for more than two years for an actual theatrical release. It is also known as The Convicted, though the only English title on the film is The Guilty Ones. The Chinese title means “You Are a Murderer”.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Reach Glory Entertainment (CN), Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism (CN), Beijing Royale Entertainment (CN), Beijing Haoda Jiahe Advertising (CN).

Script: Du Yu. Script advice: Wang Hongwei. Photography: Wang Yu. Editing: Zhou Xinxia, Qiao Aiyu. Music: Zhang Jian. Art direction: Liu Weixin. Styling: Tan Jiang. Sound: Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan.

Cast: Wang Qianyuan (Chen Hao), Song Jia (Bai Lan), Feng Yuanzheng (Li Aijun, Zhuzhu’s grandfather), Li Jiuxiao (Wang Xingxing), Hu Ming (Tian, police captain), Ma Xiaoqing (hospital nurse), Xin Baiqing (Zhang, police captain), Wang Sisi (Zhuzhu’s mother), Tao Hai (Qian, police sound analyst), He Yunwei (noodle restaurant owner), Shi Liang (police chief).

Release: China, 22 Nov 2019.