Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country.
Red Corner benefits from an intriguing setting — the opaque Chinese legal system — and Richard Gere's committed performance as the wrongfully accused American, but the film is largely a conventional legal thriller that doesn't fully exploit its exotic backdrop. The plot follows a predictable wrongful-accusation formula with few surprises, and Bai Ling provides a noteworthy supporting turn as the conflicted Chinese defense lawyer. Cinematography is workmanlike at best, failing to make striking use of Beijing's visual potential. The ending resolves in a fairly routine fashion without much dramatic payoff, leaving the film as a competent but unremarkable entry in the legal thriller genre.