Most of the FULL RIVER RED looks like an adaptation of Bullshits Job with a lot of Bloodshed.
The employees of a giant company are racing through the hallways, killing each other with immense brutality, and when they
briefly stop cutting each other’s throats, they begin to talk about who will get the next promotion.
Thousands of men in incredibly beautiful historical outfits guard the offices where the bosses sit at their desks, dressed in even fancier uniforms.
I wish that every office should have people dressed in similar costumes. Then office life would truly make sense!
It is very difficult to understand the meaning of their chases. The adversaries are constantly changing: recent enemies, turn out to be allies, and allies easily go over to the side of the enemy.
The chief/ministerial/boss, up to a certain point, is above the fight, but he, too, proves later to be involved in the circus-wide scramble for power and dominance.
Running, killing and abuse take place in an enclosed space made up of corridors and offices. The only way out leads to a huge square, where thousands of soldiers stand waiting for orders.
In the movie, this is «the people» and «the outside world.»
It is this square that will be the epicenter of the film’s surprise ending, with thousands of soldiers inspirationally repeating lines from poetry glorifying courage and self-sacrifice.
As it turns out, the story was not about careers, but about self-sacrifice, sacred solidarity and a poetic revolution that has been with us for centuries and will remain that way forever.
I’m going to watch other Yimou Zhang films. It’s a real discovery.