Article 20

Prosecutor Han Ming is inside a difficult case. A villager has killed a man who bullied him for months and repeatedly raped his wife. The question is simple and the answer is not: is this intentional harm or justifiable defence? At the same time a version of the same question is running through Han Ming's own household, over a fight his son got into at school. The film puts the courtroom and the kitchen back to back. Zhang Yimou's film takes its title from Article 20 of China's Criminal Law, the clause on justifiable defence. The provision has been on the books since 1979 and is very rarely applied in practice. The film did enormous business in China; legal commentators found the picture it paints too optimistic.