Fan Bingbing has spent the last six years in obscurity. After becoming an international star with roles in projects like “X-Men” and “Iron Man,” the Chinese actor has remained underground due to huge tax extractions from unpaid taxes in 2018. So it’s shocking that Fan stars in ‘Green Night,’ an indie film about a woman who becomes involved with drug dealers in South Korea and has lesbian intercourse. Being associated with such a film and depicting ‘immoral’ behavior is bound to stir some controversy considering Fan is a Chinese actress. Too bad it’s not more memorable.
“Green Night” opens under the sickly fluorescent lights at Incheon International Airport, where customs agent Jin Xia (Fan) feels a surge of electricity while working with an unnamed passenger (Lee Joo-young) in the security line. She pulls the woman aside for a pat down and blushes when she spots a tattoo between the woman’s breasts. The chemistry between them is intense, and before Xia knows what’s happening, she’s giving the woman a ride into Seoul on her scooter.
That’s not when they decide to kiss.
To start with, they need to dispose of the drugs that the lady was trying to transport through the airport Xia was indeed right; there was something off about her which is how the two ultimately find themselves in Xia’s husband’s apartment. (As with many of the events in this film, this happens out of nowhere.) Without spoiling too much, this is when the story “Green Night” goes into a much deeper stage of a Sapphic romance crime story in which two women are on the run, just like it was before. Keep in mind, the difference is that it lacks the sense of progress so strong in the previous examples.
“Green Night” takes place during Christmas, when director Han Shuai portrays a gritty vision of Seoul’s concrete underbelly, skillfully applying the twinkling lights and shiny ornaments to portray emotion within the film, in an atmosphere that is deeply multi-faceted. The neon pink and blues of the bowling alley, alongside the street lights at night, allows Han’s vibe to give off Wong Kar-wai’s, although it’s more akin to Han’s impressions. It is very much so, that ‘Green Night’ is plot-heavy but in all moods, the emphasis of, ‘purple prose,’ overshadows or outright ignores details that bring true context to the tale.
Xia and Wnder her green-haired lover truly do depict a free spirit who aims to bring a tight accompanied case out of her shell, but that depiction is very one-sided. Fan’s iterations of Xia were amazing, with room for many conflicted feelings and a face feeling that drew ever so slightly worried. But she is merely an archetype and doesn’t even have a name. And her disappearance from the narrative is a spoiler alert, where her humanity is unimportant. It’s safe to say, that one could reason her to be a hallucination if she and Xia had already never, ‘hooked’ up in a stranger’s hotel room.
The transmission is marred with the inclusion of needless misogyny, as the women search the previously mentioned area after confronting, ‘him’ for being in the wrong bathroom. Turns out, there is a hidden cache of women’s clothes there which they make a mockery of to show doubts.
Indeed, discomfort and confusion are not the desired feelings Green Night sets out to create in its audience. It can be appreciated, although not necessarily enjoyed, but it does attempt to grapple with some thought-provoking issues. Here, rather than leaving with a bang, it premieres with a whimper.
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