‘Green Night’ Review: Fan Bingbing Returns to the Silver Screen in an Atmospheric but Flimsy Neo-Noir Thriller
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Since its heyday during the 1940s and 1950s, film noir has always been characterized as a male-dominated genre. From The Maltese Falcon to Double Indemnity, staples of film noir have dedicated themselves to tracking male protagonists in flux; figures often destabilized by alluring yet conniving women that have come to epitomize the most iconic of femme fatales. For her sophomore feature effort, Green Night, Chinese writer-director Han Shuai approaches elements of the film noir genre through a decidedly feminine approach, subverting traditional concepts to concentrate on female perspectives, as represented through two contrasting personalities who hold the focus of the film and will stop at nothing to escape the male-controlled worlds they inhabit. Deeply entrenched in a gritty yet hypnotic atmosphere that has reverence for the legacy of the genre in which it operates, Green Night’s deliberate craft often takes precedence over an opaque narrative that frequently feels more frustrating than satisfying.
Returning to the silver screen following a 2018 financial scandal, superstar Fan Bingbing stars in Green Night as Jin Xia, a Chinese woman living in Seoul thanks to her marriage to the Korean native Lee Seung-hu, played by Kim Young-ho. On the surface, Lee appears to be a devout Christian, but the scratches and bruises that cover his wife’s body betray his violent nature. One day, while working a routine shift as a customs officer at a border checkpoint between China and South Korea, Jin encounters a mysteriously assured woman (Lee Joo Young, Broker), who the film simply credits as the “green-haired girl” for obvious reasons. Bewitched by this enigmatic figure and her lively spirit, Jin soon learns that the green-haired girl is actually operating as a drug smuggler who has grown tired of the boyfriend who employs her. Wishing to shake off the men who run their lives, the two disparate women come together to sell the drugs themselves and pocket the money, embarking on a quest that leads them into the seediest corners of Seoul over a roughly thirty-six-hour adventure toward ultimate emancipation.
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Ever shifting through nocturnal spaces, Green Night’s sensibilities remain steadily faithful to its noir inspirations while balancing them with a feminity rarely explored in the genre. In collaboration with a filmmaking team composed mainly of women, Shuai probes typical noir-ish themes of violence, the criminal underworld, and fate. These inquiries frame the movie’s main focus: the deep connection between the characters of Jin and the green-haired girl.
Upon first glance, Jin is captivated and confused by the magnetism she feels towards the green-haired girl, drawn in by the distinctions between their demeanors. These perplexities eventually tie together through the two women’s shared desires to leave their lives behind, specifically the men who control them. The director fumbles with her depiction of this bond, which feels genuine in passing instances where the characters tie one another’s shoes or share moments in bathrooms that feel indicative of the closeness of female friendship in the real world. However, this tenderness is imbalanced by a fleeting romantic tension that is hardly investigated, hurried with a strangely heightened visual style utilized in one other moment of unsettling violence, manifesting a confusing intention that serves as one of the film’s biggest misteps. As the green-haired girl, Young delivers a free-spirited liberation that gels well with the Green Night’s overarching themes of female connection. Less successfully, Bingbing’s leading character works with a stoic restraint that never gives itself entirely to the film’s warmest beats. While Shuai struggles with shaping the link between her two leads, her screenplay is in conversation with the endurance of the feminine spirit in intriguing ways.
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While the film’s narrative approach may feel blurred at times, Green Night boasts an impressively designed look and feel that bolsters its weakest moments. Set during the Christmas season in Seoul, an ever-present atmosphere of biting chill and fluorescent lighting instills an edge that aligns perfectly with the film’s darkest tones. Sharing the cinematography duties are Matthias Delvaux and Kim Hyun Seok, who delineate the work’s visual approach between night and day in fascinating ways: Daytime scenes are approached with a grey sterility, mirroring the absence of vibrancy in Jin’s everyday life with a confident purpose that never feels derivative or bland. Scenes after dark –– which take up a majority of Green Night –– are injected with a psychedelic energy that captures the danger and possibility of the night, boldened with neon signs and a freneticism that feels reminiscent of the hypnotic visual language of 2022’s Return to Seoul. This striking look is mellowed by a memorable and tranquil mallcore synth score reminiscent of the 1980s in the most complimentary of manners.
Through both its successes and failures, Green Night operates as a movie that pushes against expectations with compelling ideas, reinforced by Shuai’s choices to create a female-centric noir-thriller that distinguishes itself within an often male-dominated genre. Absent from the spotlight in recent years, Bingbing’s work on the film serves as a daring choice compared to the rest of her celebrated filmography, and her worldwide fanbase will likely boost Green Night’s viewership as it makes its way into the world.
3/5
‘Green Night’ made its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. Beginning on Friday, October 18, it will be available digitally, on demand, and through Film Movement Plus. Click here for more information about ‘Green Night.’