A Stolen Life
命中罪爱
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.
Director: Zhao Fei 赵非.
Rating: 7/10.
Mainland actress Zhang Jingchu gradually comes through to deliver the heart and soul of this atmospheric serial-murder mystery, with strong support by actor Yu Ailei.
STORY
Haishan city, comewhere in Fujian province, eastern China, 2002. A gambler, Sun Xingwang (Qian Bo), 48, is found knifed in the back in his flat. Subsequently, a property manager, Zhu Zhihong (Li Xiaochuan), 33, is knifed at night in a back alley after visiting a prostitute. The police, led by Zhou Xingfu (Gao Dongping), along with two junior detectives, Xiaohu (Fu Guanming) and newbie Li Anquan (Dong Chang), find no known connection between the victims though the modus operandi is the same. Murderer 凶手. Jiang Siming (Yu Ailei), who runs a marble statue business, has been married to Wu Yan (Zhang Jingchu) for three years but the couple still have no children, much to the annoyance of Wu Yan’s mother (Zhu Yaying) who lives with them. Jiang Siming is asthmatic and has a violent temper; his relationship with Wu Yan is strained and she mostly remains silent. The police discover that Zhu Zhihong, just prior to his death, spoke to Jiang Siming on the phone and asked not be pressured by him. When questioned, Jiang Siming says he, Zhu Zhihong and a third man, Zhou Liang (Zhang Ninghao), were all friends from navy days, and they had agreed to join together in a project to donate a statue of the goddess Guanyin to a temple so as to help Jiang Siming’s wife conceive. (In fact, Zhu Zhihong had pulled out of the agreement, annoying Jiang Siming. When he calmed down, Jiang Siming had called Zhu Zhihong to try to fix things but Zhu had still refused.) At Zhu Zhihong’s funerary memorial, Guo Xia (Kong Yan) tries to give Jiang Siming the money for her late husband’s share but Jiang Siming refuses it. Later, Zhou Liang, who is convinced Jiang Siming killed Zhu Zhihong, and that Wu Yan was lying when she said Jiang Siming was at home that evening, orderss Wu Yan to tell the police the truth – or he’ll reveal _her_ secret to Jiang Siming. Detective Li Anquan starts following Jiang Siming; but one rainy night, while he’s tailing him by car, Jiang Siming gives him the slip. At the same time, Zhou Liang is found knifed in the street. From CCTV footage the police become convinced that Wu Yan and Zhou Liang were having an affaire, and that Jiang Siming had discovered it. However, just as they are about to arrest Jiang Siming, someone tries to kill him. This turns out to be a man called Liu Deshou (Lu Fangsheng), who admits to killing all three men, in revenge, after an argument. Butcher 屠夫. (Wu Yan had been secretly having an affaire with Liu Deshou, visiting his flat. But then Liu Deshou had been blackmailed by Sun Xingwang, who’d seen the two of them together. Liu Deshou had ended up knifing him. Back in 1994, against the wishes of her mother, Wu Yan had a lover, a schoolteacher called Lin Jian. Eventually, in 1995, the two had planned to run off together, but were prevented by a chance meeting at night with a group of drunks. The consequences of that night had affected the whole of Wu Yan’s subsequent life.) Suddenly, while on an outing up Naluo mountain with some friends, Jiang Siming dies from an asthma attack. The police arrest Wu Yan. Woman 女人. Wu Yan’s past is laid bare.
REVIEW
Mainland actress Zhang Jingchu 张静初, whose career peaked early during the century’s first decade but has dawdled since then with only a handful of standout roles (Lacuna 醉后一夜, 2012; My Running Shadow 我的影子在奔跑, 2013; The Old Cinderella 脱轨时代, 2014), delivers the heart and soul of A Stolen Life 命中罪爱, in a role that gradually develops depth and feeling as the film progresses. A serial-murder mystery that’s told from various perspectives, it’s the second theatrical feature by Changchun-born film-maker/theatre director Zhao Fei 赵非 (Single No More 光棍终结者, 2011), and is creatively produced 监制 by Hong Kong veteran Zhang Jiazhen 张家振 [Terence Chang], with a strong (if hardly starry) cast including character actor Yu Ailei 余皑磊. Alas, the film crashed at the Mainland box ofice, taking a microscopic RMB1.3 million.
After the box-office disappointment of Cinderella and the like, Zhang had tried to move away from dramas and rom-coms into larger-budget action entertainment, without much success. (Things weren’t helped by her biggest movie of this period, sci-fi drama The Three-Body Solution 三体, from the hot novel by Liu Cixin 刘慈欣, being shot in 2015 and then disappearing for ever.) Her only meaty role ended up being a tomboyish mountaineer in the international co-production Wings over Everest 冰峰暴 (2019), though the film itself flopped. Creative producer 监制 on that was also Zhang Jiazhen, and Life actually stems from the same period in Zhang Jingchu’s career: shot in and around Quanzhou city, Fujian province, in summer 2018, a couple of months after Wings wrapped, it was certified in early 2020 and finally released in spring 2025.
As Zhang has basically been semi-retired since the late 2010s, Life is a welcome reminder of what she was capable of at her best. (At the time of shooting, she was 38, so well suited for maturer, married roles.) Life was based on the novella Six Murderers 六个凶手, published in a collection in 2019 (see left), by Li Shijiang 李师江, a Fujian-born writer then in his mid-40s. Li is also co-credited with the script, along with well-known novelist/scriptwriter A Mei 阿美 (So Long, My Son 地久天长, 2019, Sunny Sisters 阳光姐妹淘, 2021; All These Years 这么多年, 2023) and director Zhao himself. The result is an intriguing, multi-layered crime drama, smoothly divided into three perspectives (Murderer 凶手; Butcher 屠夫; Woman 女人) that’s not so much a whodunit as a whydunit.
Set in the fictional Fujian city of Haicheng in 2002, it follows a series of murders of some ex-navy friends, one of whom, Jiang Siming (Yu), is in a joyless, childless marriage to Wu Yan (Zhang). Flashbacks pepper the movie – later taking it over completely as things become more twisty – and often contradict what characters have said on screen. Then 40, Yu, more familiar in menacing character roles or as gangsters, is impressively restrained here as the frustrated, asthmatic husband with a violent streak. But it’s Zhang, who starts in a seemingly nothing wife role, who comes to dominate the film, in a portrait that refuses to be either victim or villainess, more a product of circumstance. The two leads are surrounded by a rich gallery of characters, including TV actor Lu Fangsheng 芦芳生, then 39, as a moody pig butcher, Zhang Ninghao 张宁浩 as one of the husband’s pals, and Zhu Yaying 朱亚英 as the wife’s naggy mother.
Widescreen photography by Taiwan d.p. Zhou Shuhao 周书豪 (The Robbers 我的唐朝兄弟, 2009; The Piano in a Factory 钢的琴, 2010; Dearest 亲爱的, 2014; Only You 命中注定, 2015; Run for Love 奔爱, 2016) is naturally characterful, without getting in the way of the performances. Editing by the experienced Zhu Lin 朱琳 is smooth, and the score by Dai Wei 戴伟 is well attuned to the action – largely melodic but atmospheric and tense, contributing shape and feeling to the film.
The film was first announced in 2019, under the English title Town without Pity and the novella’s Chinese title, as “coming soon”. By 2020 it had become A Stolen Life, with the current Chinese title 命中罪爱, before disappearing for several years. That title (meaning “Sinful [or Guilty] Love of One’s Life”) is also a play on words, sounding exactly like the Chinese for “Biggest Love of One’s Life” 命中最爱 or even “Drunken Love of One’s Life” 命中醉爱.
Director Zhao Fei should not be confused with the identically named Mainland d.p. (Let the Bullets Fly 让子弹飞, 2010). Also, the film has no connection with Stolen Life 生死劫 (2005, dir. Li Shaohong 李少红).
CREDITS
Presented by Dadi Century (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Glory Pictures Culture & Media (CN), Xiamen Jingyi Pictures (CN), TCL (Shenzhen) Pictures & Media (CN), Cultural China Media (CN), Beijing Yiqi Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing Glory Pictures Culture & Media (CN).
Script: Li Shijiang, A Mei, Zhao Fei. Novella: Li Shijiang. Photography: Zhou Shuhao. Editing: Zhu Lin. Music: Dai Wei. Art direction: Meng Xun. Costumes: Zhang Cheng. Styling: Liu Qian. Sound: Wang Changrui, Yang Xin, Du Chunfeng. Action: Wang Yongjun. Visual effects: Chen Boliang (Beijing Nine Images Digital Technology). Executive direction: Shang Jin.
Cast: Zhang Jingchu (Wu Yan), Lu Fangsheng (Liu Deshou), Yu Ailei (Jiang Siming), Gao Dongping (Zhou Xingfu), Dong Chang (Li Anquan), Zhu Yaying (Wu Yan’s mother), Li Xiaochuan (Zhu Zhihong), Zhang Ninghao (Zhou Liang), Fu Guanming (Xiaohu), Qian Bo (Sun Xingwang), Xiao Ming (Lin Fusheng), Kong Yan (Guo Xia, Zhu Zhihong’s wife), Xi Tong (Yuerui), Liu Di (Qiu Kudang), Rong Fei (Xiaohan), Wang Qing (Xiaohan’s wife), Wang Dongjun (Pu, police chief), Gan Yunchen (Huang Liang).
Release: China, 12 Apr 2025.