The biggest criticism of the entire film is that the portrayal of female characters is too one-sided as well as stereotypes, the only time Mrs. Zheng Gang in the film to create a hint of a less one-sided image or based on the reality of patriarchal social oppression is given, and finally oriented to the image is not enough to have a real female liberation strength, and even for this love and loyalty to the relationship all of a sudden lost.

Shooting techniques simply let people think Zhang Yimou is not AI instead. From beginning to end is Hollywood positive and negative, character facial close-up dialog, let a person in the film sleepy. Lens color and lens construction completely did not inherit Zhang Yimou's previous imitation of Kurosawa Akira regressed tremendously.

Suspense story in front of the storytelling is okay, but the more to the back of the more is the same old trick, a prediction of the outcome of the overturning of the emergence of a new result, the whole set of formulas. Not a very good storytelling technique.

Finally, when it comes to politics, the intentions of this movie are clear, aimed at the 00's needless to say, want to all rely on peers to set off is it hahahahahaha.

I had my viewing of this completely ruined for me by Chinese nationals who talked, used their phones, filmed scenes and vaped constantly throughout the screening last night. I missed a lot of the sub-titles because I had to tell the male sitting next to me to stop using his phone. After the fourth time, he actually asked me "why?" Your disrespect for fellow cinema-goers does nothing to earn respect for the Chinese film industry and is not only unfair to those of us who watch World Cinema but it is unfair to the film-makers and actors.

I can only score this film as mediocre because of my dreadful experience and how my health was affected by the ignorant people vaping.

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.