What if your grief made you the executioner? A judge's daughter dies by stolen car—now he's sentencing a car thief to death.
In a small northern Chinese city in 1997, Judge Tian privately struggles with the loss of his daughter, killed by a stolen car in a hit-and-run accident. On the bench he encounters Qiuwu, a mechanic accused of stealing two cars. Perhaps influenced by his emotional state, the outwardly impassive judge imposes an almost-obsolete criminal law on Qiuwu that sentences him to death for his crime. Desperate to mitigate his sentence, Qiuwu agrees to donate his kidney to a rich businessman dying of a terminal illness, hoping at the very least that his impoverished family may profit from his demise.
Acting
Ni Dahong's face does more than most scripts.
Direction
Liu Jie lets silences scream.
Director
Liu Jie
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film critiques 1997 China's legal volatility—economic reform racing ahead while justice systems lagged dangerously behind.
Director Liu Jie based the obsolete death penalty law on real statutes still technically enforceable in the 1990s.
CN
