Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Zhang Yimou and Yongxian Quan
Starring Zhang Yi Yu Hewei and Qin Hailu
Runtime: 2 hours and 5 minutes
Currently available in theaters and due on VOD soon

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

In the most recent print issue of MovieJawn, celebrating the use of color in film, I wrote about the forty year long career of Zhang Yimou. In a filmography loaded with visually stunning movies, I’d noted that his historical Wuxia tales tended to be the most brilliant, the less historical films based in ancient China played with color but it was less central to the film and the more modern historic tales were practically drab in comparison. The one exception for the modern historic films was his lone mobster story, Shanghai Triad, where the use of color wasn’t showy, but was deliberate and moving. 

Zhang Yimou’s latest feature Cliff Walkers, is set in the 1930s and it is his first foray into espionage thrillers. Similar to Shanghai Triad, it is a modern historic tale and is more visually stylish than his other modern histories, even approaching the grandeur of his Wuxia films. Taking place during the winter in Manchukuo, the Japanese occupied state of Manchuria, snow is CONSTANTLY falling in the exterior shots of the intricately recreated city of Harbin. The cozy interiors are decorated with deep brown wood and green and red leathers. The sets, props, costumes and vehicles are all made with gorgeous detail. This was really something fun to look at.

Where the problems come in are the story and the politics of the overall message. Like any espionage thriller, the film gets a bit convoluted. We open with four parachutists falling through the snow into the forest outside of Harbin. There are two men and two women and as their stories slowly unfold, we learn they are spies from the Communist Party that have been trained in Russia to infiltrate the Puppet state of Manchukuo and expose the Japanese atrocities to the rest of the world. The “why” is understood, but exactly “what” they are exposing and “how” they are going to accomplish this, never really comes to light.

That doesn’t entirely get in the way of enjoying all the feints, moving pieces and uncovering of double agents. There’s a little drama thrown in where we learn that two of the spies are married and part of their motivation is to be reunited with their children. The performances are all engaging and, as mentioned previously, the movie looks great. If you don’t bother yourself with thinking too hard, this is a fun little watch. I especially enjoyed the wintery setting because Philadelphia was experiencing the warmest couple days we’d had in the past six months and I could fool myself into being cooled by the imagery (rather than closing the windows and turning on the air conditioning).

I’ve read that Zhang has had some issues with the Chinese censors. I have not seen his last film One Second, but it reportedly experienced MULTIPLE delays before it was released due to him being required to do reshoots in order to appease the government. To me, Cliff Walkers feels like Zhang was sick of battling with them over storylines and just wanted to make a movie that looked cool and would make money, packaged in a story that would please the government.

In the end, the “good guys win” in a way that, again, I can’t really explain. Some of the Communist spies have evaded capture, those that were captured managed to die before divulging their secrets and they now (I guess?) have an infrastructure set up to free Manchuria from the Japanese. I dunno. Maybe it’ll make more sense on a rewatch, which I WILL do. It’s a good enough movie for me to want to see it again. I just won’t expect it to make a ton of sense.