Manjianghong (2023)

Manjianghong (2023). Manjianghong: Directed by Yimou Zhang. With Teng Shen, Jackson Yee, Yi Zhang, Jiayin Lei. A pawn tries to get rid of a traitorous minister, Qin Hui, when he leads an army to the border for talks with a Jurchen mission.

“When an ambassador is found stabbed to death, the Prime Minister u0026quot;Qin Huiu0026quot; (Jiayin Lei) orders an immediate investigation to be headed by his director u0026quot;He Liu0026quot; (Yi Zhang) and his deputy u0026quot;Wu Yichunu0026quot; (the quite charismatic Yunpeng Yue). Pretty quickly, this investigation has seen the killing of the Captain of the guard and his replacement by the young u0026quot;Sun Junu0026quot; (Jackson Lee) who has alighted on a potential culprit in u0026quot;Zhang Dau0026quot; (Teng Shen). The Prime Minister has given the young man and his prisoner just two hours to get to the bottom of the killing and to retrieve a letter thought to have been contained in an ornate leather purse. For much of the first ninety minutes, this is quite a cleverly interwoven and characterful whodunit. Who to trust, who is behind the plot – what is contained in the letter? Who has read the letter? What might the beautiful courtesans know of the mystery? Itu0026#39;s quickly paced and quite entertaining. Sadly, though, the last forty-five minutes rather falls away. The characters all start to trip over themselves and the intrigue stops being that and starts to become a bit of a farce leading to an ending that was really weak and disappointing. It looks great though, the production standards and costumes are professional and colourful – itu0026#39;s just an hour too long – and thatu0026#39;s without counting the endless pre-title production credits!”