Green Night 2023 Movie Review

『Silent Solidarity and Redemption Between Two Women』

🎥 Film Overview

🎬 Title: Green Night (2023) 녹야
🌍 Country: 🇨🇳 China
🎞️ Genre: Drama / Lesbian / Social Issues
🗓️ Production & Screening: Invited to the Gala Presentation, 28th Busan International Film Festival
📢 Director: Han Shuai

👩‍💼 Cast: Fan Bingbing – Jinsha
Lee Joo-young – Green-haired Woman

🧩 Story Deep Dive (Spoilers)

🌑 The Oppressive City and the Birth of a 'Bad Woman'

Green Night is set against the backdrop of Korea’s dark urban landscape, portraying the chance encounter of two women and their one-night journey toward liberation. The dazzling comeback of Fan Bingbing (Jinsha) alongside the intense presence of Lee Joo-young (Green-haired Woman) elevates the film into a story with deep symbolic resonance, transcending the simplicity of a road movie.

🔥 A Meeting as an 'Event,' Not 'Salvation'

The most striking feature of the film is that the relationship between the two protagonists is not framed as a traditional savior-saved dynamic, but instead as a mutual event of disruption.

• Jinsha (Fan Bingbing): An immigrant woman who maintains her visa and legal status through marriage to a Korean man, yet lives a life oppressed by her husband’s religious hypocrisy and domestic violence. Her muted wardrobe symbolizes a passive and repressed existence. Her true liberation can only come through breaking free from the cycle of violence and seizing her own freedom.

• Green-haired Woman (Lee Joo-young): Known only as “Green-haired,” she embodies freedom, instinct, and chaos. Though she lives dangerously, trafficking drugs, her fearless honesty makes her a disruptive stone thrown into Jinsha’s stagnant life. She does not seek to “save” Jinsha, but rather provides the catalyst for Jinsha to act for herself.

The two women stand in stark contrast—China vs. Korea, repression vs. freedom—but are bound by a shared desire to escape male-dominated violence.

🌙 Erotic Tension Beneath the Coldness

Green Night is saturated with dreamlike yet gloomy mise-en-scène reminiscent of the style of Hong Kong noir master Wong Kar-wai.

• Contrast of Colors: The dark, damp underworld of Seoul and Incheon, filled with crumbling buildings, glows with red crosses and neon signs. Above all, the intense green of the Green-haired Woman invades Jinsha’s colorless world, symbolizing temptation, danger, and deviation. Visually, it heightens the opposition and attraction between the two women.

• Queer Coding and Distance: The subtle yet palpable erotic tension between the actresses is one of the film’s key appeals. However, instead of evolving into a conventional romance, the narrative remains within the realm of solidarity and latent desire born from loss and hardship. Some critics find this “hesitant queer narrative” frustrating, yet it can be understood as the director’s deliberate emphasis on liberation over love. Their physical connection feels less like romantic salvation and more like a shared safe haven against external violence.

🌿 'Female Solidarity' and 'Self-Forgiveness'

Green Night raises profound questions about how women survive and escape in a society steeped in patriarchy and violence.

• The Cycle of Male Violence: Jinsha is trapped by her husband, while the Green-haired Woman is under the control of her drug gang boss. In the film, men often symbolize violence, hypocrisy, and control. To break free, the women cross into the dangerous realms of crime.

• The Desire to Be a 'Bad Woman': The Green-haired Woman declares, “It’s too hard to live as a woman,” wishing to be reborn as a dog in her next life, or to become a “bad woman.” This rejection of submissive, sacrificial roles reflects the narrative’s core: the justification of crossing moral boundaries for survival.

The film includes moments where Jinsha herself becomes a perpetrator of violence, ultimately reaching the point where she claims her own salvation. In the final scene, Jinsha rides away alone on a motorcycle, symbolizing a woman who no longer relies on forgiveness or salvation from others but finds freedom within herself.

🔍 A Feminist Solidarity Thriller

Green Night stands out with Fan Bingbing’s transformative performance and Lee Joo-young’s explosive energy, weaving the themes of female oppression and liberation into a dark, stylish noir. Though some may critique the narrative for certain ambiguities and lapses in plausibility, the film profoundly explores the psychology of violence and solidarity, presenting a bold new aesthetic of the female solidarity thriller.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★