Jack is almost positive that he could not have done this, but he can't really remember exactly what happened as he had quite a bit to drink. He turns to the American Embassy for assistance, only to discover that they can do nothing for him. Jack's appointed attorney, Shen Yuelin (Ling Bai), seems completely uninterested in the facts of the case, not even bothering to meet with him before Jack appears in court the first time. Then she insists that Jack plead guilty and hope for leniency. Jack is furious that no one is on his side, not understanding that, in China, you are guilty until proven innocent and that if you plead innocent and are found guilty, you are taken out and shot.

As the court case continues, Jack is fully aware that the whole proceeding is a parody of justice. No one in the courtroom cares what really happened, no one seems interested in finding the real murderer or in hearing his side of the story. Most of the time Jack can't even understand what is going on as his translating system keeps going off. He does discover that the woman he slept with, the woman who was murdered, was the daughter of a General in the Chinese military and that the general is very interested in seeing his daughter's killer brought to justice. If only Jack could convince all of them that they have the wrong man...

Red Corner was a good film, but for being a thriller, I found the thrill a little bit lacking. I found myself restless while I watched the film and started puttering around the house, working on little things and listening to the dialogue instead of watching it. I also thought that the message was a little too heavy-handed at times. Most of the Chinese in the film were shown as stupid or corrupt and that is simply not the case. I wish that Director Jon Arnet could have shown more of the cultural differences to try and explain that you are working with a whole different mentality rather than a group of people who are just mean and cruel. Those points aside, the film did make me very grateful to live in America, where we have many freedoms that we take for granted. The story was a little boring at first, but once all of the pieces started coming together at the end, it caught my interest again and I thought that it had a good ending. With some beautiful scoring by Thomas Newman, decent acting by Richard Gere alongside a luminous Ling Bai, this is a movie for people who enjoy a lot of politics mixed in with a little bit of action.