Jack Moore, played by Richard Gere, is a high powered American businessman in China, who skillfully attempts to work out a big TV deal with the Chinese government. After business hours he picks up an attractive Chinese woman and spends the night with her. He wakes up dazed and confused, with her dead body in the suite and Chinese police arresting him. He is whisked off to jail and has to deal with a rigid, repressive Chinese judicial system and a weak U.S. foreign embassy. His saving grace comes in the form of a quiet and skeptical female Chinese lawyer who is assigned to his case. Shen Yuelin, excellently played by Bai Ling, is slowly convinced of Jack's innocence as accidents and incidents unfold.

From the visually impaired point of view, this was a very tough movie. We had the usual silent beginning, scenes from China's countryside to the bustling city, flashes from one scene to another. Don't allow your sighted assistant to go for popcorn in the beginning. You'll miss too much.

Well blended Oriental music in a few scenes accented the flavor of the Asian setting. Many scenes had no music at all to give you a feel of the austere lifestyle. The music was done with taste and never interfered with the dialogue. This was good. The movie focused around two main characters with very distinct voices. This was also very good. The rest was very difficult. There was lots of dialogue in Chinese, often to confuse all movie-goers, not just the visually impaired. There were some places with subtitles, obviously places where the director thought it important for everyone to know what was going on. Even the best sighted assistant has trouble whispering paragraphs of subtitles. It's not much fun for anyone. In the second half of the picture there was a chase scene that lasted for at least twenty minutes. No words for twenty minutes, just lots of sound effects. Very frustrating.

In spite of the degree of difficulty, I will still encourage people to see this movie. It was powerful and filled with almost believable tension. I'll only give this picture a 3, though. Oh, how I long for great movies with intensity and meaning that I can give an 8 or 9 to!