Jia nian hua

The perpetrator can easily get away by sending money to the victims. The laws and evidence are unable to confront the corruption of high class. In the end, this case will be replaced and forgotten just like the huge statue of Marilyn Monroe.

When we talk about great female directors, we have to mention Kathryn Bigelow, who is known for her documentary-style camerawork and for her creation of an intense atmosphere. Vivian Qu, the director of this brilliant thriller "Angels Wear White", is just the Chinese counterpart of Kathryn Bigelow.

The scenes are realistically shot and depicted. The editing is amazing, the pace is comfortable, and the audiences always wonder what would happen next. Even in the last scene, people still wonder where Mia (Vichy Chen) is heading. The music score is light but effective.

Vivian Qu is even better than Kathryn Bigelow in terms of depth and complexity of the film. The thriller exposes the dark side of the Chinese society, where money and power control everything.

To summarize, "Angels Wear White" is the best Chinese-language thriller of all time.

Set in a Chinese seaside resort city, this powerful film has a lot to say but it is not an easy watch and may break your heart at times. The movie is most ably directed by Vivian Qu, and it's only her second feature film.

Fifteen-year-old Mia (Qi Wen) is an employee at a hotel on the beach and one night witnesses, a possible sexual assault on two 12-year-old girls by a local Commissioner in one of the rooms there. What will follow will expose a corrupt and even inhumane system more intent on protecting the powerful than anything else. I might note here that Shi Ke adds much to the film as Ms Hao, a lawyer who tries to help bring justice to the victims and expose what happened on that night.

The movie has its share of rather bizarre and quirky elements, such as an enormous replica in the middle of the beach of Marilyn Monroe's famous scene in the film "The Seven Year Itch" when her skirt was blown upward on a subway grating.

Overall a powerful and important movie for those viewers who can stay with it, despite some very difficult scenes I will look forward to seeing what director Qu will bring to the screen next.

What kind of vision does a female director bring to a movie? I don't know if Vivian Qu would oppose to being specifically called a "female" director, but I definitely thought that her movie centers the perspective of its female characters in ways few other movies - in the West included - do. The movie shows the various ways in which women are silenced, objectified, and abused at a personal and systemic level. It always does so in a subdued manner, which is respectful to its cast but still conveys a strong message. Some quieter scenes put forward powerful symbols (a marginalized character is asked twice to move out of a photographer's angle, happy couples taking wedding pictures on the beach, the Marilyn Monroe statue). An intelligent, truly feminist work.

China needs such films to break away from the noise of capital and tell a good story quietly. The portrayal of the three generations of old, middle-aged and young women is realistic and makes the plot very natural. Only two points must be deducted at the end. The turning point is too stiff. Another point was deducted because of the senseless lenses of literary and artistic films.