| Red Corner | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jon Avnet |
| Written by | Robert King |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Karl Walter Lindenlaub |
| Edited by | Peter E. Berger |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $48 million[1] |
| Box office | $22,415,440 (USA) |
Red Corner is a 1997 Americanmysterythriller film directed byJon Avnet, and starringRichard Gere,Bai Ling andBradley Whitford. Written byRobert King, the film is about an American businessman in China who ends up wrongfully on trial for murder. His only hope of exoneration and freedom is a female defense lawyer from the country.[2] The film received the1997 National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award (Richard Gere, Jon Avnet) and theNBR Award for Breakthrough Female Performance (Bai Ling). Ling also won theSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress.[3]
WealthyAmerican businessman Jack Moore (Richard Gere) is on a trip toChina attempting to put together asatellite communications deal as part of a joint venture with the Chinese government. Before the deal can be finalized, Moore is framed for the murder of a powerful Chinese general's daughter, and the satellite contract is instead awarded to Moore's competitor, Gerhardt Hoffman (Ulrich Matschoss). Moore's court-appointed lawyer, Shen Yuelin (Bai Ling), initially does not believe his claims of innocence, but the pair gradually unearth evidence that not only vindicates Moore, but implicates powerful figures within the Chinese central government administration, exposing undeniableconspiracy andcorruption. Shen manages to convince several high-ranking Chinese officials to release evidence that proves Moore's innocence. Moore is quickly released from prison while the conspirators responsible for framing him are arrested. At the airport, Moore asks Shen to leave China with him, but she decides to stay, as the case has opened her eyes to the injustices rife throughout China. She does admit, however, that meeting Moore has changed her life, and she now considers him a part of her family. They both share a heartfelt hug on the airport runway, before Moore departs for America.
In December 1996, it was announcedRichard Gere would be shootingRed Corner in March 1997.[5]
While in production, directorJon Avnet filed suit againstMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer after they refused to sign the agreed revised budget ($54 million for shooting inLos Angeles following abandoning a $49 million shoot on location inChina which also included recognition of Avent's producer and director's participation includingfinal cut privilege.[6]
Red Corner was shot in Los Angeles using elaborate sets and CGI rendering of 3,500 still shots and two minutes of footage from China. In order to establish the film's verisimilitude, several Beijing actors were brought to the United States on visas for filming. The judicial and penitentiary scenes were recreated from descriptions given by attorneys and judges practicing in China and the video segment showing the execution of Chinese prisoners was an actual execution. The individuals providing the video and the descriptions to Avnet and his staff took a significant risk by providing it.[7]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times cited the Hitchcockian setup, that succeeds "in giving the word conviction double meaning." fusing "curiosity about China with entertainment value."[8]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times describedRed Corner as "a contrived and cumbersome thriller designed to showcase Richard Gere's unhappiness with Red China, which it does with such thoroughness that story and characters are enveloped in the gloom. The Chinese do this better to themselves. Unlike such Chinese-made films asThe Blue Kite, andTo Live which criticize China with an insider's knowledge and detail,Red Corner plays like a xenophobic travelogue crossed with Perry Mason."[9]
Cynthia Langston ofFilm Journal International responded to the film, "So unrealistic, so contrived and so blatantly 'Hollywood' that Gere can't possibly imagine he's opening any eyes to the problem, or any doors to its solution, for that matter."[10]
In his review in theLos Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan calledRed Corner a "sluggish and uninteresting melodrama that is further hampered by the delusion that it is saying something significant. But its one-man-against-the-system story is hackneyed and the points it thinks it's making about the state of justice in China are hampered by an attitude that verges on the xenophobic."[11]
Salon film critic Andrew O'Hehir noted that the movie's subtext "swallows its story, until all that is left is Gere's superior virtue, intermixed with his superior virility—both of which are greatly appreciated by the evidently underserviced Chinese female population." O'Hehir also noted that the film reinforces the infamousWesternstereotypes of Asian femalesexuality (as in those ofThe World of Suzie Wong) as well as the hoariest stereotyping.[12]
OnRotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 27% based on reviews from 22 critics.[13]
Total Film gave a 3 out of 5 star rating, stating thatRed Corner was "A semi-powerful thriller let down by pedestrian direction and a lacklustre Richard Gere. Even so, newcomer Bai Ling and an unblinking stare at the Draconian Chinese legal system prevent Red Corner from being an open-and-shut case" and describes some scenes depicting the harsh treatment of the Chinese legal system as "thought provoking" yet describes the rest as only "mildly entertaining".[14]
The film wascensored in thePeople's Republic of China due to its unflattering portrayal of China's judicial system. Gere was vocal about how the film is "... a different angle of dealing with Tibet" and a political statement about China's oppression ofTibet, even though Tibet is never mentioned in the film.[15] Chinese officials visitedMGM, the film's studio and distributor, to ask why the studio was releasing the movie during the U.S. visit of Chinese presidentJiang Zemin.[16]
A memo issued by China'sMinistry of Radio, Film and Television, sent toJack Valenti, president of theMotion Picture Association of America and addressed to Chinese film offices, banned cooperation with the Hollywood studios that producedRed Corner (MGM/United Artists),Kundun (Disney) andSeven Years In Tibet (Columbia TriStar), as films that "viciously attack China {and} hurt Chinese people's feelings... Although . . . all kinds of efforts have been made, those three American companies are still pushing out above films... In order to protect Chinese national overall interests, it has been decided that all business cooperation with these three companies to be ceased temporarily without exception."[17] Gere claims his political activism regarding Tibet and his friendship with theDalai Lama has disrupted his film career and affects the financing, production and distribution of films he is connected with.[18][19]
Testifying before theUnited States Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness on "censorship as anon-tariff barrier" in 2020, Gere stated that economic interests compel studios to avoid social and political issues Hollywood once addressed, "Imagine Marty Scorsese'sKundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama, or my own filmRed Corner, which is highly critical of the Chinese legal system. Imagine them being made today. It wouldn't happen."[20][21][22]
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