Di er shi tiao

Di er shi tiao, internationally known as Article Twenty, is a Chinese courtroom drama directed by renowned veteran Zhang Yimou. This is the first legal-themed Chinese movie that focuses on the issue of justifiable defence. The movie aims to prove the righteousness of Chinese justice, law and politics as it can thus be considered a contemporary propaganda film.

Three stories are told throughout the film. The most important one focuses on a desperate man who gravely injured the bully of a village who had been insulting him and raping his wife for several months. The second case focuses on a courageous bus driver who protected a young woman from two louts but was accused as an assailant and now files petitions in the capital to clear his name. The third and final case focuses on a stubborn high-school student who intervened against a vicious group of intimidators targeting a sole victim in a restroom.

This film convinces on several levels. First and foremost, the movie intertwines emotional, intense and realistic dramatic elements with entertaining, quirky and surprising situation comedy in an overall balanced way. Up next, viewers will easily roots for the brave heroines and heroes of this film and against the selfish villainesses and villains of this movie. The acting performances are particularly strong throughout. The movie has been filmed with calm, focus and precision which makes it a joy to watch on the big screen.

On the negative side, that movie clocks in at one hundred forty-one minutes which is at least half an hour too long. Especially the film's middle section drags on and loses the promising momentum of the exposition before picking pace up again towards the resolution. Sometimes, the combination of comedy and drama elements is slightly inappropriate, unpleasant and wooden. For instance, the movie sometimes establishes a dramatic atmosphere dealing with a relevant topic involving traumatized characters before a joke is suddenly brought up to break the ice. While many viewers at my local cinema were cheering and laughing, such cases rather made me wince and question the audience's judgements.

At the end of the day, the movie's memorable resolution pardons for several flaws in its middle section. Article Twenty thus qualifies as propagandistic but nonetheless relevant legal drama with a few elements of situation comedy that should please Chinese viewers as well as international audiences who care about justice, law and politics. This film might not be Zhang Yimou's finest hour but it underlines the consistent quality of his cinematography in recent years.

Can't imagine this movie is Direct by the one person that show the whole world how spectacular China is during Olympic. ZYM old movie was beautiful shot and hidden meanings. Now being control by capitalism,his movie is sloppy and non creative.

Camera keep to the person when the parents will argue make me feel giddy. Parent keep arguing all the way from start to end make me feel sickling.

Actually is a good education movie if not for ZYM try to make funny movie for CNY. All cast will great except the parent ruin the whole movie. ZYM should stop making funny movie and stick to his last time movie making.

The procurator's determination that Wang Yongqiang was acting in self-defense only meant that he did not have to go to prison, not that he could got benefits or receive compensation from government treasury.

Wang Yongqiang owed a lot of high interest loans. At the same time ,his wife Hao Xiumei committed suicide . Hao Xiumei being rescued by doctors at the hospital, and then she is not in severe condition ,but she still stayed in a single special ward. The movie in this scene is not realistic in poor family.

Han Ming's son storyline is strange. Just look like in order to add one character for someone. School bully storyline is not harmoniously in movie.

The topic here is quite an interesting one. A CCTV camera captures a man being attacked and stabbed multiple times. The police apprehend the perpetrator, but as the hastily partnered prosecutors - "Han Ming" (Jiayin Lei) and "Liu Lingling" (Ye Gao) start to investigate, they discover that the victim was actually quite an odious creature who probably deserved his fate - despite the vocal protestations of his family. Meantime, the former is also having some family drama after is son "Yuchen" (Liu Yaowen) intervenes in a school bullying incident and finds himself faced with making an humiliating apology or a court-ordered detention. Poor old "Han" is now under mounting pressure from his bosses, his partner and from his rather strong-willed wife "Li Maojuan" (Li Ma). Juggling plates isn't really his forte, and for most of the drama we vacillate between the increasingly hysterical and bickering marital relationship that starts off quite funny but ends up quite grating, and a police investigation that ultimately has a political point to make about the voracity of Chinese justice to the audience. It does have it's moments, and at times I did feel a bit sorry for "Han" as his problems accumulate with no obvious solution for a man who just wants to get to his retirement in one piece. Otherwise, though, it's all a bit messy. The narrative doesn't really flow and it becomes just a but too much of a soap for me as it begins to run out of steam. It is watchable, and at times does raise a smile - but the stories are all just a bit too thin.

From director Zhang Yimou, director of Hero, Shadow, and Full River Red, Article 20 is a courtroom drama uniquely packaged as a Chinese New Year comedy, cleverly broaching the sensitive topic of justifiable defense.

Han Ming, a newly assigned public prosecutor, works on a controversial case involving a husband stabbing his loan shark after raping his wife. Is it murder or a justifiable defense?

Meanwhile, Han Ming's son Han Yu Ming gets into a fight in school stopping a bullying incident. The injured bully is the son of the school guidance counselor Mr Zhang, who has reported the crime to the police.

As a criminal record threatens Yu Ming's chances of getting into a good university, Han Ming and his wife Li Maojuan rush to mediate the situation and plead for Mr Zhang to retract the police report...

Based on real-life defense cases in China, Li Meng and Wang Tianyi's script is sharp and thought-provoking. It brilliantly uses comedy to discuss the heavy uncomfortable topic of the often-neglected self-defense clause.

Zhang Yimou shoots the script as written, preserving its tight structure and rhythm, leaving his signature color palette aside. As seen previously in Full River Red, Zhang is surprisingly a talented comedy director-and in a witty fashion! There's a self-referential gag that refers to Zhang Yimou's previous film Full River Red that's wickedly funny. I prefer Zhang's new artistic direction making comedies over his wuxia or historical epic. This is among Zhang Yimou's best.

The hyper-verbal comedy between Lei Jiayin and Ma Li as the bickering husband and wife is hilarious. This becomes the emotional center, as a lightened comedic take on a family caught in a legal snag and arguing about what to do. Whenever the film switches gears and gets serious, it's gripping.

How do we judge what is right in a given situation? Do we judge from what's written in law or intuition? Can something be lawful if it's not in the law book? How do you judge motivation when a person's intentions change every second?

The current wave of Chinese crime films is a fascinating trend. They have more narrative freedom now, allowing for all sorts of crime subgenres and all conclude with a public message discouraging said crime. The restrictions have become its version of the early Hollywood Hays Code. Article 20 has beat the system, somehow.

Article 20's greatest achievement is how it packages itself as a laugh-out-loud comedy, cleverly slips past government restrictions inoffensively to acknowledge and ease the public about these misjudged self-defense cases in the past. From the end title cards, the government is on board as well.

I haven't seen a Chinese film quite like this. It's something to behold.