Silent Witness (2013)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Blistering performances.

It starts with a court room scene of a 20 year old girl having murdered her fathers girlfriend and the arguments in favour and against it. The father is a multi billionaire who goes to do anything to save his child and Prosecutor is a enemy of the father having tried various times in the past to lock him up but failsIt's one of the most matured court drama thriller of recent times with fantastic performances from the lead cast. It's narrated from each characters perspective revealing the truth slowly and more gracefully. The plot is intense with a logical and gripping screenplay enacted by lead actors so beautifully that it turns out to be an excellent masterpiece. The suspense gets revealed at each twists but still holds the audience at the edge of the seat with some twists which are unpredictable. The final revelation is master stroke and brilliant and also brings out the emotional quotient. KudosIt's a must watch for extra ordinary screenplay and performances

Compare to other Chinese movies at the same time this one is much better. I can feel the director's effort to make this movie more interesting, more attracted by using the POV skills. I guess this is quite popular after Game of Thrones TV series. Let's talk something I don't like. The case itself is not so "real". It's lack of some logic if think a little deep. But the director telling the story in a different way and it will distract the focus on the logic itself. Again, if you finished watching this movie, when you start thinking back some pieces of this movie, you will find out that "wait, wait, that's sounds not right. It doesn't make sense." For example, the video clip in this movie is an obvious "bug". Neither in western court system nor Chinese court system, the video can't play such a big role of evidence. And if you taking serious about this movie, about the video clip, you are over estimate the function of it and under estimate the capability of juristic system. All in all, not bad movie for modern Chinse movie producer. But story line itself needs more work.

This is one of the few films that has kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Excellent plot and acting. Very smooth development and full of surprises. Superb story telling skills. One of the few talented scripts in modern Chinese cinema. Without disclosing much of the plot, we can only say it is mainly a courtroom drama involving a widowed tycoon whose 19-year-old daughter is accused of murdering his bride-to-be, a beautiful artist who is found to be having an affair with another young man. As the court proceeding evolved, we seem to discover more evidence and hence new relations among all the stakeholders, including the lawyers for both sides. A very good suspense story with strong focus. The vast amount of internal struggles and complex yet repressed emotions are brilliantly delivered by the excellent cast. Sun Honglei (the tycoon Lin Tai), Aaron Kwok (the fierce prosecutor Tong Tao), Nan Yu (the defense lawyer Zhou Li who vows to save the seemingly innocent defendant) and Jiajia Deng (Lin Mengmeng the daughter) are all great in showing the wide range of sentiments: anger, doubt, resentment, arrogance, guilt, awareness etc as the drama unfolds.The art direction is also great. Although it is a fictitious trial in a fictional Chinese city, we are led to believe that such modern city with skyscrapers, highways and colonial architecture really exists and information can flow freely in China.Very tactfully, the film projects an ideal China while stating that things are often not what they seem to be, especially in this new world power. Because precisely in China, anything can happen.One criticism I have is that the first few scenes in the media control room to introduce the main characters are sort of superfluous and can be edited out to make the whole film classier. The presence of cameras in the courtroom is also not necessary and, generally, not allowed.All in all, if you are into suspense, surprise, courtroom drama and modern China development, this is a must see. If you are interested in exploring the theme of justice, truth, loyalty, love, manipulation and the legal system, this is also quite worth watching. Highly recommended.

Lin Tai, a tycoon with a history of multiple charges of fraud over the years, hires a top class lawyer to defend his daughter who is charged with killing his girlfriend. State prosecutor Tong Tao is expecting a scapegoat to be produced when it appears to be his star witness. But things are not as they seem.The director Fei Xing's experiment with nonlinear multi-perspective storytelling has certainly offered something new in a country where courtroom dramas are rare and mostly driven by state-sanctioned ideology.With a story revolving around a powerful political figure and his offspring being put on trial, multiple testimonies being overturned at the stand and courtroom proceedings spiraling into a poisonous expose of trysts and sexual misdeeds.The lawyers' pursuit of the truth offers riveting drama, in which the prosecuting and defense teams are seemingly being manipulated in a game plan unfolding out of their control.This courtroom thriller is highly recommended.