This is a film I remembered fondly when seeing it when young, but I didn't recall it well and I'm surprised too there was not a thread for this year. I watched it again and it kind of has a few problems here and there, but I quite enjoy the 90's thriller vibe it has. The Beijing setting was apparently completely created and digitally imagined in the US and it's quite impressive aside from a few building shots. Gere is great as the American business man getting caught in Chinese culture and Bai Ling is unrecognizable in a dramatic role as his boyish lawyer, against type, from roles she took on after this. The opening sequence is very good and though the middle of the film is bit monotonous with its courtroom scenes, Gere dealing with a foreign justice system, though quite fictionalized, changes pace just often enough to be entertaining.

B-