Red Corner (1997)

Bai Ling: Shen Yuelin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Shen Yuelin : If you plead not guilty, you will be sentenced to death. And, unlike in your country, Mr. Moore, sentences are carried out within a week. You will be shot, and the cost of the bullet will be billed to your family.

• [last lines] 

  Shen Yuelin : [to Jack]  Remember, everything is different now. Now you have someone on the other side of the world who is family. You will always have a family.

• Shen Yuelin : You come from a country where the infant mortality rate is higher than ours!

  Jack Moore : The reason you know that is we don't delete the records!

• Shen Yuelin : Why can we not conduct our affairs in daylight? Why can we not trust the people to witness them? Why can we not allow their voices to be heard rather than crushing them into muteness? I am willing to pay the price if I am wrong. Are you willing to pay the price if I am right?

• Jack Moore : Why did you risk your life for me if you didn't believe me?

  Shen Yuelin : I always assumed the worst about you. I've never questioned. I have always accepted things. It is the same as when I was a child.

  Jack Moore : What?

  Shen Yuelin : I was blind, I was mute.

  Jack Moore : When you were a child, it was during the Cultural Revolution, wasn't it?

  Shen Yuelin : Yes.

  Jack Moore : What is it?

  Shen Yuelin : I went to school, until they closed down and everything went mad. I do not know if you could understand this, Jack Moore.

  Jack Moore : Try me.

  Shen Yuelin : I... I watched... I watched my father be humiliated, and I said nothing. I watched my father be spat on, I did nothing. I even watched my classmates pour black ink over his head, one after another and after another. What did I do? I hid my head in shame while he was dragged away. I never questioned. I was blind. I'm very sorry that I did not believe your innocence. But now, I do. I do.

• Shen Yuelin : In China, we hold the welfare of the state above that of the individual. We have six times the population of your country, Mr. Moore, and one-tenth the crime rate. Tell me, who is right?

• [first lines] 

  Shen Yuelin : When I was a child I would come to this park and play, and my grandmother would tell me why the bamboo was here. She said, it is waiting for the wind to touch it. It is filled with emotion. Listen to the sound, and you can feel that.

• Jack Moore : Why are you doing this?

  Shen Yuelin : I am doing this because I do not wish to be silent any more.

• Shen Yuelin : Lin Dan!