Red Corner (1997)

	Directed by: Jon Avnet	COUNTRY USA GENRE Mystery/Courtroom Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Rød rettferdighet RUNNING TIME 122 minutes
	Produced by: Jon Avnet Jordan Kerner Charles Mulvehill Rosalie Swedlin
	Written by: Robert King

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jack Moore	Richard Gere	½
Shen Yuelin	Bai Ling	½
Bob Ghery	Bradley Whitford	-
Lin Dan	Byron Mann
David McAndrews	Peter Donat	-
Ed Pratt	Robert Stanton	-
Chairman Xu	Tsai Chin	½
Lin Shou	James Hong	-

Review

Even at 48 and completely grey, Richard Gere was able to convincingly play a guy who could visit a nightclub and pick up the most beautiful 20-something in the room. Armed with that superpower, another enticing Thomas Newman score and a rather intriguing setup, Jon Avnet went to China to create this part immersive cultural exchange and part genre-faithful legal thriller. Oh wait… He didn’t actually go to China. He stayed in L.A., brought in Chinese and Hong Kong actors and soaked them in CGI images to create a verisimilitude of China. It works to a certain degree, and the budding romance between Gere and his soon-to-be lawyer Bai Ling may even make you more lenient towards the somewhat clumsy, but arguably rather practical manner in which Avnet solves the language-barrier problem for us. That being said, the picture turns increasingly American and increasingly stereotypical as the finish line approaches. So if you’re still onboard just as Bai Ling is about to go onboard, you’re probably a romantic at heart. Or American. Or both.