Under the Light is a modern crime drama from Zhang Yimou, director of Hero, The Great Wall and Shadow.
After a disastrous bus bombing incident in the fictional city of Jingang, police officer Su Jianling, son of Mayor Zheng Gang, conducts a crime investigation with the help of his ex-girlfriend and fellow officer Li Huilin. The clues lead towards rich businessman Li Zhitian, an associate of Zheng Gang, uncovering a bigger conspiracy.
Director Zhang Yimou unleashes his trademark color play, gorgeously dressing the city of Chongqing into a neo-noir neon cityscape punch-drunk with an array of bright fluorescents, mirror surfaces, and lens flares. All that visual intrigue, however, is wasted by the on-the-nose dialogue that gives everything away, erroneously placing the audience one step ahead of its story.
Chen Yu's script doesn't trust the audience enough to follow through the intended convoluted plot. It was intriguing in the first half and then progressively loses momentum with the characters explaining everything away and it all immediately becomes routine. All the moral murkiness created from the bright Blade Runner-like visuals is wasted.
Full River Red, the last Zhang Yimou film released earlier this year also written by Chen Yu, had a lot more bite and wit, giving effective narrative twists and turns. Perhaps Zhang and Chen are more confident working in the historical action genre as their grasp of crime film tropes seem greener.
All in all, I'd rather watch Full River Red one more time.
