Did China ruin actor Richard Gere’s career after 1997 film Red Corner?
- Red Corner, about an American lawyer trapped in a corrupt Chinese legal system, was highly critical of China, and something of a passion project for Gere
- China banned any cooperation with the studios behind the film, and Gere has since said there are ‘movies that I can’t be in’ because of his involvement
It may be hard to imagine today, but in the mid-1990s Hollywood made a series of high-profile films criticising China, rather than pandering to the country to maximise worldwide box-office profits.
Released with varying degrees of fanfare in 1997, Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Seven Years in Tibet and Jon Avnet’s Red Corner are scarcely talked about today. Whether that’s a question of quality or diplomacy is another matter.
Red Corner is a glossy but by-the-numbers tale of an American lawyer trapped in a corrupt Chinese legal system. It stars Richard Gere, then one of the biggest stars in the world.
Gere, for whom this was something of a passion project, had condemned China’s occupation of Tibet and “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation” at the 1993 Oscars. After Red Corner, he would feel the full force of the country’s ire.
While visiting Beijing to broker a satellite communications deal with the government, entertainment lawyer Jack Moore (Gere) has a one-night stand with a general’s daughter Hong Ling (Jessey Meng), then wakes to find she’s been murdered.
