Movie Digest
The perfect victim is a movie that touches on the problem of domestic violence. the movie revolves around a murder case that occurred in Binlong city. It’s the death of a young woman, that at first sight seems like a suicide. Upon closer look and investigation, there were questions raised as to if the victim was right-handed and why was the knot around her neck left-handed?. Realizing there is scope for this case to be a homicide, police begin their search for the assailant. Not too long after the investigation, the authorities were able to pin down several suspects for questioning about the painter’s death. One Zhou Yan is considered the prime suspect in the case. Zhou Yan has previous allegations of abusing his wife. He apparently commits suicide during the investigation. Will the police finally be able to nail down the culprit?
The Feel-Good Part
This movie definitely has all the elements to propel an audience towards the cinema hall. For starters, in this movie, we have the movie presented as if the viewer is the detective. The lead performance of actor Le Naiwen is what carried this movie entirely. Its particularly noteworthy to mention that while this movie has touched on aspects of domestic violence, we also have some information thrown on how multiple personality disorder is presented in affected individuals. It’s far more than what we think it is especially if we are talking about how this script of the movie is based right on a real-life incident. The movie is from the perspective of the detective and the thrill/ mystery keeps getting better as we are led to believe Yan is the murderer behind two women’s death but halfway through his death makes everyone scratch their heads and wonder who else could be behind this? Very rarely do movies that explore themes in murder mystery drama, or crime thriller manage to build the suspense up. They bring to light not just domestic violence but the social harm it does for a victim of that instance. Its storyline was humanistic and deeply empathizing. With the powerful acting presented by Naiwen, the plot is kept interesting.
The Disappointing Factor
The film has a lot of cliches although it touches on a variety of problems. It’s a murder mystery yes, but do we need as an audience to focus on domestic violence and multiple personality disorder as well? It feels as though they wrote the script and the plot, then sat down and decided what more could we do to make this complicated? Some characters are written quite foggily. There are scenes of people walking in a daze to symbolize their mental health dereliction. Shots of pill bottles amongst other things emphasize how much this movie sticks to stereotypes in order to portray something as important as a victim’s mental health. The main actor Naiwen pulled it off with this role, the cynical, casual disbelief look is something an audience is all too familiar with in genres like these.
In-Depth Analysis
The film has done a good job of portraying how domestic violence scars the victim for life. We get to see how it shapes the reality of the victim this packed with a murder mystery in it makes up for a good plot. Many people fail to recognize the victims of domestic abuse and this film does help in at least opening the conversation surrounding the issue more or less. The movie has a great cast and most notable in it is the lead Naiwen. As a viewer, Naiwen’s depiction of the detective sticks long after the movie is over. We get involved in the police procedure as we see it from the perspective of the detective. But to an extent, this film might leave some people underwhelmed.
Star Power
Li Naiwen. Joyce Feng, Zhang Junning, Kevin tan are the lead actors in this movie.
Overall Opinion
Genres involving crime, and mystery always hold as a mirror to what we see happening in real life around us. Art imitates life, as is the case with the script that was really inspired by a real-life incident involving domestic violence. Some people might find the themes of this movie distressing to digest. If at all that is the issue you are free to skip this movie. But the cast has a powerhouse of performance in this film and if anything, this movie should be paid its due respect for that alone. One another aspect of this film is the frames have very pleasing colour pallets. It fits the emotions being displayed on the screen by the actors and that is very important in the making of a film.
