Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #192. Zhang Yimou’s Full River Red

Full River Red (Man jiang hong)

Currently in a creative overdrive with what appears to be one project overlapping the next, word last summer was that Zhang Yimou was moving into a period mystery thriller with some comedic elements in what we imagine would be a sizeable budget considering that his last pair in box office champions Cliff Walkers (read review) and his co-directed Sniper (2022) had solid coin in place. The septuagenarian’s Full River Red is toplined by Jackson Yee with supporting players to include Shen Teng, Lei Jiayin, Yue Yunpeng and Zhang Yi. Written by Chen Yu and Zhang Yimou, the title shares its name with a famous poem and is set in the Southern Song Dynasty. The trailer was just released.

Gist: A pawn tries to get rid of a traitorous minister, Qin Hui, when he leads an army to the border for talks with a Jurchen mission.

Release Date/Prediction: This is receiving a domestic release this month in China – so the film festival route would begin in Berlin or genre fests in the first and second quarters.