‘A Long Shot Review: A Grimy Industrial Thriller Set During Chinas Economic Reforms Of The 1990s

Chekhov said that a gun cannot be shown in the first act of a play without being fired afterwards. In director Gao Peng's first feature film , Long Shot, said weapon appears in the first five minutes and then remains unused until the end. The remaining two hours of this dark and violent film have the shooters battling corruption and crime at a foundry in the industrial wastelands of northeastern China. Great conflict crisis

The Fenglin Ferroalloy Factory, the massive, rust-covered facility where most of the film takes place, employs more than 8,000 people and is practically a city unto itself. But wages haven't been paid for months, and workers - or those left behind - are feeling frustrated. Qu

He works with six other friends under the command of Chief Gu Tian (Shao Ping), forming an ancient police force in a place that plays by its own rules. Suspects are usually beaten and rarely brought to the regular police because the guards prefer to solve problems themselves. They have access to guns - a rarity in 1990s China, as mentioned in the opening credits - but they only use them in emergencies.

At home in his dingy apartment, Gu secretly makes homemade weapons in hopes of continuing the sport that made him a minor celebrity in his home state. He is very lonely, works alone and has a long-distance relationship with Jin Yujia (Chen Hailu, Cliff Walkers ), a single mother who lives next door to her teenage son Jing Xiaojun (Zhu Chengjie). a little bit Retail trade

After much preparation , A Long Shot opens with Hook catching Geng trying to steal scrap from a factory. Instead of reporting on the boy, he decided to lead him on, teach him the basics of Gingo and keep him under control as much as possible. But the lure of crime is everywhere, whether it's the poor workers, thugs roaming the neighborhood, or, as we eventually learn, some of Fenlin's bosses.

Written by four screenwriters, including director Bing, the script depicts a run-down industrial world marked by years of theft and misery, where everyone struggles to survive. Thieves risk their lives to steal copper wires or broken machine parts, showing just how desperate a part of China is, where state-owned enterprises are privatized and sometimes bankrupt.

Although set in the mid-1990s, The Long Shot also references the country's current economic crisis, as well as the authoritarian regime in which hard-working workers like Gu are persecuted by the authorities. This aspect of the plot eventually collides with the heist story that unfolds in the second half of the film, culminating in a bloody shootout during the factory's 40th anniversary.

Peng handles these final scenes decisively, with fiery explosions culminating in non-stop bursts of fireworks, and Gu's homemade weaponry finally put to good use. It's a strong ending that helps make up for the film's somewhat vague plot and muddled drama, despite good performances from Feng and the rest of the cast.

In the end, it's not the shooter that's so memorable about A Long Shot , but the scene itself, which recalls a small town after a major dystopian disaster. Fanlin's background score, shot in fifty shades of gray and brown by cinematographer Florian Zinke (" Tigers" ), is a reminder of what China once was and what it could be if corruption prevailed and morally strong people such as we Hard to reach.

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