Legally Dead
There’s a lot of yelling but not a lot of legal wrangling in Zhang Yimou’s legal thriller.
Article 20
Director: Zhang Yiimou • Writers: Li Meng, Wang Tianyi
Starring: Lei Jiayin, Ma Li, Gao Ye, Zanilia Zhao, Wang Xiao, Liu Yaowen, Fan Wei, Chen Minghao, Wang Xiao
China • 2hrs 21mins
Opens Hong Kong April 18 • IIB
Grade: C
There are more legal thrills in an average episode of Law & Order than there are in Article 20 | 第二十條, the alleged “legal thriller” that raked in US$325 million at the box office over CNY. Article 20 is a marriage farce; a family comedy of sorts, in which every character is shrill and every performance is pitched to 17. The first film (supposedly) to ever pick apart China’s legal code, said picking is buried so far beneath the “hilarious” shenanigans of useless, confrontation-averse People's Procuratorate staffer Han Ming (Lei Jiayin, Under the Light) as he struggles to deal with a case he doesn’t want, a short-tempered colleague who expects better, Lyu Lingling (Gao Ye) and his shrewish, unreasonably jealous wife, Li Maojuan (Ma Li, YOLO).
Full disclosure: I’m in the minority on this. The rapid-fire, overlapping yelling that stood in for dialogue was cracking the preview audience up, so the domestic high jinks clearly land with some of us. If that’s your jam, great. Article 20 will work for you – at least until it takes a turn for the caustically sanctimonious in the third act. Chalk up another turkey for director Zhang Yimou, whose devotion to the company line has sapped his films of any thought or grace. He’s even abandoned his signature style for this clunker; there’s not a single drone overhead shot or hard shadow to be found.
You…coming out of this movie
Article 20’s legal drama is cobbled together from a variety of actual cases that came before the Supreme People's Procuratorate – a producer on this film, FYI – in which “justifiable defence” was used as an, er, defence in criminal proceedings. Article 20 of China’s Criminal Law book states defendants are not guilty of serious assaults or murder if their actions were in defence of themselves or others, and supports the idea of action by private citizens. Zhang and co-writers Li Meng and Wang Tianyi don’t actually get to wrestling with the legalities, ethics and morality of Article 20 until about two hours into a movie that runs 2:21 (for the record Law & Order averages about 44 minutes, just sayin’).
Legal thrillers are a thing for a reason: the best ones ask us tricky questions about the difference between what’s legal and illegal, what’s right and wrong, and the nature of justice. But Article 20 spends its first hour – over an hour – watching Han juggle his wife and Lyu (in one of those instances where a five-minute conversation ends the conflict), avoiding more work on a case involving a man, Wang (Yu Hewei), rotting in jail who stabbed a loan sharking thug 26 times in response to a campaign of terror and repeatedly raping his wife (goddamnit!), Hao Xiuping (pop star Zanilia Zhao Liying in a riotous performance as a deaf woman). Han’s son Yuchen (Liu Yaowen) is also in a legal tangle, for kicking the crap out of a kid at his fancy school – the director’s (Zhang Yi, Full River Red). He too was a thug harassing another student. Xiuping’s desperate attempt at suicide snaps Han out of his apathy and inspires the stirring speech that closes the film. The one that extols the wisdom and virtue of the legal code – a code for the people that demands both respect and obedience.
It’s hard to describe just how much of a mess Article 20 is. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not a fan of marriage farces, but by all means, have at it if you’re going to go that route. The problem here is that the comedy clangs – hard – with the relatively serious subject of a legal statute that could be open to controversial interpretation. Imagine a wacky Adam Sandler parody that suddenly pivots to interrogate Florida’s bonkers Stand Your Ground law? I’ll wait… Yeah. Clang!
By tucking the heinous crime that inspired Wang’s rampage (naturally, the actual rape victim gets no voice – literally) in between the folds of Han and Li’s exhausting, high octane banter Article 20 dilutes the debate over it. This is hardly subversive stuff. Zhang, Li and Wang no doubt mean the other dust-ups in the film to work as examples on the sliding scale of “self-defence” and as part of the runway that leads up to Han’s Big Speech (which is livestreamed?), and they tip their hats to the inherent sexism lingering in the legal system by having Lyu punished for her insistence that Wang’s claims of imminent harm be fully investigated. But, and this is hilarious in its tone deafness, Lyu is labelled too emotional to continue the case. Han the borderline inept doormat gets her job. At least that feels real. — DEK