Article 20
Article 20 is a 2024 Chinese drama film directed by Zhang Yimou, and stars Lei Jiayin, Ma Li, Zhao Liying and Gao Ye. The film tells the story of a prosecutor who has reached middle age and wants to seize the last opportunity to work at the Municipal Procuratorate. The film juxtaposes his career and family life with the similar struggle in both.
Article 20 was released in theaters in China on February 10, 2024, in IMAX, CINITY, Dolby Vision and other formats.
Plot
Since taking a temporary position at the city prosecutor's office, Han Ming has been plagued with one headache after another.Both in and out of work, Han Ming frequently talks to and travels with his colleague, Lu Lingling, causing cases to drag on unresolved. His wife, Li Maojuan, even perceives this as him cheating.
Zhang Guisheng, a former bus driver, an acquaintance of Han Ming, was fired from his job several years ago for fighting back against hooligans who harassed a woman on the bus and got into a fight. He is going to take a train to Beijing to appeal the case but on the way to the train station is hit by a high-speed truck and dies.
Han Ming is also investigating a rape case filed by a deaf woman, Hao Xiuping. Her husband fatally stabbed the rapist and was incarcerated. The rapist's accomplices have been harassing the woman and attempting to force her to sign a document dropping the charges. Desperate and scared for the safety of her husband and child, she jumps off the top floor of a construction site.
His son Yuchen sees the son of his school's principal beating up a classmate and intervenes. He fights the son and breaks his nose, causing the principal to sue his parents. Yuchen refuses to apologize and does not explain the full situation. This causes a group of the principal's son's friends to beat him up one day.
His wife, outraged by this, takes matters into her own hands and assaults the principal, escalating the conflict even further and leading to her own arrest.
As the battle between emotion and law unfolds, and the struggle to balance career and family intensifies, Han Ming decides to risk everything, determined to uphold fairness and justice in his own way.
In court, Han Ming calls for charges against the defendants in all of these cases be dropped. He invokes Article 20 of Chinese criminal law, suggesting that all of these were valid self-defense cases. His speech receives applause from the audience, and all are freed.
Cast
- Lei Jiayin as Han Ming
- Ma Li as Li Maojuan
- Zhao Liying as Hao Xiuping
- as Lu Lingling
- Liu Yaowen as Han Yuchen
- Wang Xiao as Deputy Prosecutor Tian
- as Li Maoquan
- as Wang Yongqiang
- Zhang Yi as Zhang
- Fan Wei as Liu Bingren
- Yu Hewei as Prosecutor Wang
Production