UNSPOKEN (2024)

After years of undercover missions in some of the toughest drug circles, Xu is no longer on the force and in permanent rehab at the countryside. No liquor, no cigarettes, very little red meat and a life that is now entirely focused on the happiness of his deaf and mute daughter. She’s currently a scholarship student in the US, where Xu imagine she’s having the time of her life. Until one horrible day, he’s informed that her lifeless body has been found in a forest close to her campus. He’s invited to come and identify the remains, helped by Lucie, a criminology student doubling as his personal translator. Not only for the language, but also for another barrier he’s having troubles with, that of peculiar all-American customs… For the local law enforcers, the case is closed. Just another Asian girl killed by her black boyfriend, nothing to get worked up about. A little too convenient, Xu thinks. But he’s quickly going to realize his pleas to look deeper into the case fall on deaf ears, those of a community that is steeped in ordinary racism. And that he’ll have to come out of retirement to get to the bottom of the mystery…
Aside from a solid thriller, Daming Chen’s UNSPOKEN is also about the clash of two diametrically opposing cultures that do not understand each other. It’s a masterful analysis of the harmful power of stereotypes and prejudices, uniting Hanyu Zhang (OPERATION RED SEA, THE WALL) and Michael Cudlitz (THE WALKING DEAD).