Zhang Rui’s lead performance is a ninety-minute masterclass in wooden self-pity: every line lands with the thud of a cold read, the same glazed puppy-eyes deployed whether he’s confessing betrayal or ordering take-out. His soon-to-be ex-wife shows more life in her exit than he manages in the entire film, and the handful of bit players appear to have been kidnapped from a mall food court and forced to recite dialogue at gunpoint. The script mistakes fortune-cookie clichés for soul-searching (“Freedom is just another cage…”) and recycles them until the words lose all meaning, while the plot drif…
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