The Whistleblower (China 2019) - Movie Review

2019 was a very big year of Chinese cinema, and on top of some impressive movies released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the CCP, there have also been a few solid productions filmed overseas with international studios including this movie and Sheep Without a Shepherd.

Set in Australia against the backdrop of corporate conspiracies, The Whistleblower bravely attempts to craft a complex and thrilling story for the audience, using a mixture of local actors and the well known and well loved Chinese actress Tang Wei.

So what’s the result?

What's this Movie About?

The Whistleblower tells the story of Mark, an executive who works for an Australian mining company called GPEC. Mark has been tasked with closing a deal between Australia and a Chinese city to mine for gas when an old flame, Zhou Siliang, played by Tang Wei, enters the scene. In a moment of weakness, Mark and Zhou have a one-night stand before she’s set to return to China.

However, her plane crashes and she seizes this opportunity to fake her death to launder money from her husband. A complex web is then unraveled as we discover GPEC has been paying bribes to the Chinese to win contracts for gas mining even though their methods of extraction have been proven to create serious environmental disasters in a mining base in Mawali Africa.

It’s up to Mark and Zhou to expose the conspiracy and the players behind it, while Mark’s family life falls apart due to his infidelity and his character is brought under scrutiny.

Is it Worth Watching?

If you’re after a solid thriller with minimal plot discrepancies and other distractions, unfortunately this isn’t the movie you’re looking for.

While the story ends up making sense in the end, it weaves a rather complex web that takes some time and lot of unnatural coincidences to work out.

It’s perhaps more of a curiosity due to the Whistleblower laws deployed by the Chinese Government in China in 2018/2019, and thus feels like a propaganda piece that happy to portray foreign businesses as corrupt – although a few local business men don’t get through the movie unscathed.

What are Some of the Memorable Moments?

There are a few solid memorable moments in the film. And one of the biggest for myself was seeing how Australia and Australians were being portrayed in this movie. I’ve never seen Australian’s as the bad guys in movies, and that was something refreshing.

The storyline also had interesting elements that pushed it to the edge of almost being a great thriller movie, and as always the Chinese acting was solid – but the letdown was in the English speaking performances. All of them.

Mark’s wife Judy, also has an interesting role in the film – where her job as the creator of CGI creatures using 3D technology was put into convenient, although unbelievable, use at the end of the film.

It was fantastic to see the long sweeping shots of many Victorian tourist attractions, including the spectacular Twelve Apostles site, highlighting some incredibly beautiful Australian vistas. Interestingly, the scenes set in Africa were actually filmed in Australia using members of the local African community.

There’s also an informative acknowledgment at the end of the film for some of the most famous corporate whistleblowers in history, and it’s worth sticking around to read it.

What's Not So Hot?

As mentioned, the English acting is quite poor, including average acting from two actors Australian audiences will be familiar with in John Batchelor and Steve Bastoni. This poor quality acting, plus the flawed yet decent attempts by Chinese actors to speak English, has an overall negative effect on the film.

Additionally, everything in the movie happens too conveniently, especially the Birthday scene at the beginning of the film that casually introduces a handful of characters that will play a vital role at the end of the movie. This makes the movie feel too much like a movie – it’s too easy for Mark to find clues, people to help him and to know where to go.

Overall Impressions

It’s a decent attempt at a thriller, that unfortunately will be overshadowed by other Chinese productions, including the exciting Sheep Without A Shepherd. While some of the flaws in the movie are forgivable, there isn’t enough here to ensure the rather long running time of 130 minutes.

It’s got moments of being exciting, and its always great to see Tang Wei, but there are others films you should be directing your attention to.