Green Night
For the last six years, Fan Bingbing has not been making any moves. For it appears the Chinese actress who once featured prominently in blockbuster American movies like “X-Men” and “Iron Man” was forced to sit back in the shadows after she got huge penalties for undeclared earnings of taxes back in 2018. So one can only imagine what it means that she’s starring in ‘Green Night’ which is a South Korean independent film that features bisexual sex scenes with Fan, who also gets involved in drugs and waits for her crossovers with the American movie brands. She is putting her head on the line with this film. Such a shame it is not a better one.
The film “Green Night” begins with the chaotic yet ghastly fluorescent lighting of the Incheon International Airport such as the one where customs officer Jin Xia (Fan) locks eyes with a mysterious stranger, a green-haired lady (Lee Joo-young) who sparks something in xa as they met via security line between strangers. She even kneeled one-sidedly and lifted the woman’s shirt, almost falling in love with the woman’s tattoo that was beneath her breast. The emotionally charged atmosphere is palpable and pushes Xia beyond any boundaries, and in a moment, the stunning woman finds herself on the back of Xia’s scooter zooming through the streets of Seoul.
They do not, however, kiss at that moment.
Initially removing the drugs which the woman carried and smuggled through the airport- Xia was right, something was going on with her is what leads to the two ending up at Xia’s ex-husband. (This happens with quite some suddenness, much like many plots of this film.) Without spoiling too much, from there, ‘Green Night’ becomes even more of a women in love on the fritz Sapphic crime film than it was earlier, but a very disjointed and haphazard one at that.
“Green Night ” takes place during the Christmas period and Han Shuai complements her beautiful images of the rough scene in Seoul with sparkling bulbs and shiny objects. There is a pretty Wong Kar-wai style, from blue and pinks at a night bowling alley to blue and orange street lights at night, even though, in contrast to Wong, there is almost too much impressionism in Han’s picture.”Green Night” manages to be both utterly unfocused on plot and overly plot driven in fact, the plot or the elements necessary to have a basic structure of conflict are barely articulated as there is a strong focus on ambient content which fails to connect important parts of the narrative.
Xia and her green haired lover play extremes on the stereotypical basis of a ‘frigid’ woman in the closet and a liberating outspoken woman who come together, only this too is skewed in the telling. Xia’s character portrayal as Fan’s is somewhat layered with a chance to show hesitance, and scrupulousness on Fan’s gain starey faces. But her partner an alter ego with even no name is so despicable that at the end of the plot, she is vanished from the storyline entirely (and yes, spoiler alert) without leaving a single trace. One may assume that she is an imaginary being unless it was because she and Xia end up making out in some other person’s hotel room.
That sequence is diluted with an unmerited sense of trans misogyny when the women after attacking the stranger they have never met for being in ‘the wrong place’ ransack his bedroom. There they came across women’s underwear which they seem to deride and feel are out of place in the environment.
At this moment, the experience of being so immersed in the film becomes unpleasant and chaotic instead of the dreamy seductive nature that ‘Green Night’ is trying to achieve. It’s not the most horrible film around, but it is also not a film of any real importance especially in light of the film’s dominating themes. In this scenario, a star may be noted for a great comeback, but it does not come with a dramatic coup, but a sigh.
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