Angels Wear White (2017) Review: Silence as Complicity

Is Angels Wear White worth watching?

Yes, with some reservations. Angels Wear White is a controlled, quietly angry drama about sexual abuse and complicity in small-town China, and its refusal to sensationalise its subject is both its great strength and its limitation. Vivian Qu observes how a crime against two children ripples through families, police and local power with an unblinking, almost clinical eye. The reservation is that the same restraint can feel cold, and some of the film’s symbolism is more obvious than the rest of its careful storytelling.

What is Angels Wear White about?

In a small seaside resort town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel room. Mia (Wen Qi), a teenager working the reception desk that night, is the only witness. She has caught a glimpse of what happened on the security footage, but fearing for a job she cannot afford to lose, she keeps quiet. Meanwhile Wen (Zhou Meijun), one of the two 12-year-old victims, discovers that the aftermath brings trouble of its own, from parents, school and the authorities, rather than protection.

Angels Wear White is written and directed by Qu, her second feature. It is a Chinese production in Mandarin that runs 107 minutes. The cast also includes Shi Ke, Geng Le and Liu Weiwei. The film won Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2018 Malaysia International Film Festival awards.

Two girls on either side of the crime

The film’s most striking decision is its double focus. Mia is barely older than the victims, but she is already on her own, working in an adult world with no one to protect her. Wen is still a child, dependent on parents who are distracted, angry or ashamed. By following both girls, Qu shows the same system from two angles: one girl is failed by the adults who should care for her, the other is learning that silence is the price of survival.

Wen Qi gives Mia a watchful, guarded intelligence, and much of the film’s tension comes from her calculations about what she has seen and what it might be worth. Zhou Meijun is heartbreakingly natural as Wen, conveying bewilderment and resentment without melodrama. Neither performance asks for sympathy; both earn it.

A calm surface over deep anger

Qu shoots the town in clean, pale compositions, with sunlight, empty streets and the sea always close by. It looks peaceful, which is the point. The violence at the story’s centre is never shown, and the film’s anger comes through in what it observes: officials negotiating, a doctor’s examination, adults protecting reputations and interests. The resort’s giant statue of Marilyn Monroe, with her white skirt blowing up, looms over the characters as a pointed image of how girls and women are displayed and consumed.

That image is also where the film’s control slips. The statue is used repeatedly as a symbol, and after a while its meaning feels underlined rather than discovered. Some secondary characters, especially the adults on the side of power, are sketched more as types than as people.

Where the restraint costs it

The film’s cool style keeps its subject from ever feeling exploitative, which is an achievement, but it also holds the audience at arm’s length. Scenes often end just before they would become emotionally overwhelming, and the story’s thriller elements, around evidence and a lawyer trying to push the case forward, never quite generate the suspense they seem to promise. Viewers looking for catharsis will find the film deliberately withholds it.

Who should watch Angels Wear White?

It is for viewers drawn to serious, socially engaged drama and to contemporary Chinese independent cinema. It deals with the sexual abuse of children, though nothing is shown on screen, as well as corruption and exploitation, and it is emotionally difficult even at its most restrained. It is best suited to adult audiences.

If it resonates, consider:

• Better Days, a more melodramatic but powerful Chinese drama about teenagers left unprotected by adults.
• Black Coal, Thin Ice, a cold, stylish Chinese noir that also finds moral rot beneath an ordinary town.

The verdict

Angels Wear White is a sober, intelligent drama that turns a crime into a portrait of a society’s failures, carried by two excellent young performers. Its restraint sometimes becomes distance and its symbolism can be heavy, but it remains an important and affecting film.

Rating: 3.5/5