AllMovie

In the tradition of John Hancock's Baby Blue Marine comes director Diao Yinan's Uniform (AKA Zhifu. In this gentle, bittersweet coming-of-ager, produced and set in modern China, Liang Hongli is Wang Xiaojian, a young man suddenly laid off by his local factory, who happens upon a police officer's uniform at his parents' laundromat. He tries it on, and is delighted to discover the changes it effects in others' reactions to him. Wang uses his new "position" to arraign lawbreakers and extort bribes that will pay for his father's hospital bills. He also uses the confidence wrought by the uniform to win over a pretty shopgirl, who - unbeknownst to him - carries a disarming secret of her own. In the vein of classic neorealism, Yinan uses gritty filmmaking techniques and delves into the life stories of ordinary Chinese citizens that might otherwise be overlooked by cinema.