“Green Night” is a little murky noir film which works best whenever it focuses on the wild and compelling relationship between its two very different main characters. Although I found myself quite frustrated with several vague aspects of its plot, I observed their relationship development with curiosity at least, and it is a bit shame that the movie does not push its story and characters more instead of throwing more disorientation and confusion onto the screen.

The movie, which is set in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area begins with a little naughty variation of Meet Cute moment between its two main characters. Jin Xia (Fan Bingbing) is a Chinese woman who has worked as an inspector in the port custom of Inchon not long after marrying some South Korean guy, and the opening scene shows her accidental encounter with a mysterious young green-haired South Korean woman. As Jin Xia scans her body, the young woman seems to be interested in drawing Jin Xia’s attention for no apparent reason as your average manic pixie girl, and Jin Xia subsequently finds herself followed by the young woman not long after the young woman makes a little fuss in front of Jin Xia due to a petty issue with her shoes.

Although she could simply say no to the young woman from the beginning, Jin Xia eventually lets the young woman into her little shabby apartment, where she has stayed away from her husband. He is apparently quite abusive to her as reflected by a few wounds on her face, and Jin Xia certainly wants to get away from her husband as soon as possible. However, she needs a considerable amount of money for being allowed to stay in South Korea after her divorce, and her husband keeps calling her to her annoyance.

While still not knowing what to do with the young woman, Jin Xia belatedly comes to realize that she gets herself into a big trouble because of the young woman, who, not so surprisingly, turns out to be a drug mule. Jin Xia promptly reports this to her direct supervisor, but, what do you know, it is subsequently revealed that her direct supervisor is also involved with a certain drug organization the young woman works for. When Jin Xia is quite at a loss, the young woman quickly offers a chance to earn lots of money right now, and Jin Xia agrees to accompany her even though being well aware of how risky that will be for both her and the young woman.

As they try to sell what the young woman has been carrying, the movie goes deep into the underworld hidden inside a local fishery market area. At one point, they approach to a certain drug dealer who looks like one of many fishmongers in the market, and the mood becomes tense as it turns out that this drug dealer is not someone they cannot mess with at any chance.

When the young woman later causes a big problem for both her and Jin Xia, Jin Xia has no choice but to call for some help from her husband, and we get to know a bit more about their abusive relationship as he lets his wife and the young woman into his residence. At first, he looks overly courteous to Jin Xia, but it does not take much time for him to reveal his monstrous side, and that leads to a big shocking moment of violence.

As a result, Jin Xia becomes more panic and desperate before while getting more stuck with the young woman. Maybe she could simply just go away from this problematic figure, but Jin Xia somehow finds herself gradually attracted to her. At one point, They happen to get a little place where they can be safe and alone for a while, and it soon turns out that the feeling is quite mutual between them, so they instantly let themselves driven by their burgeoning romantic passion. Fan Bingbing and her co-star Lee Joo Young are convincing as their good performances generate enough erotic heat on the screen, and then we get a little tender scene where their characters open themselves a bit more to each other.

However, the movie does not support its two lead performers’ solid efforts enough in my inconsequential opinion. The screenplay by Chinese filmmaker Han Shuai and her co-writer Lei Sheng does not clarify many things in the story as simply having its two main characters bounce from one narrative point to another, and that frequently distracted me during my viewing. As a crime noir drama, the story can surely be as confusing as allowed by its genre, but I think a bit of clarification or explanation could help us get engaged more in the story. In fact, you may find yourself scratching your head a bit on a number of ambiguous story elements just like I did after the movie was over.

Nevertheless, the movie is still interesting to some degree as a genre film made in South Korea by a Chinese filmmaker, and Han Shuai and her crew members including cinematographers Matthias Delvaux and Kim Hyun Seok did a competent job in case of technical aspects. The mood and details of the film are fairly authentic with considerable realism, and I could clearly discern that they did enough study and research before the shooting.

In conclusion, “Green Night” is not entirely satisfying, but it was not a waste of time at all for attempting to mix Chinese and Korean elements together. It does not reach to the level of Park Chan-wook’s recent film “Decision to Leave” (2022) in that aspect, but I will not deny that I was entertained to some degree. After all, Fan Bingbing driving a motorcycle on South Korean alleys and streets isn’t something I and South Korean audiences see everyday, is it?