Missing weapon

A simple policeman in the small Chinese town of Ma Shan ( Jiang Wen ) wakes up with a severe hangover after his brother’s wedding. Going to work, he discovers the disappearance of the service pistol . Initially, he suspects family members, but quickly becomes convinced of their innocence. Going to his brother, he realizes that at the wedding - the only place where he could lose his weapon, more than fifty people were present, and there is no exact list of them. He cannot even figure out who drove him home and who rode with him. Arriving at work, he learns that he and his colleagues are entitled to remuneration from the Communist Party . However, after the news of the missing weapons, the reward is withdrawn, and the head of the entire regional police comes to them. The matter is extremely serious: any private possession of weapons is prohibited, a simple person does not need a gun, so the weapon fell into the hands of criminals. The situation is complicated by the fact that there were three bullets left in the pistol, which means three potential corpses. In addition, a professional can kill two or more people with one bullet. The authorities order within a few days to find weapons by connecting the department to combat the mafia to this case. Otherwise, Ma Shan will face dismissal, and possibly prosecution.

After finding out that even the local bandits do not have weapons, the policeman sets off on the road and soon catches the unlucky thief who, when detained, shoots him with a signal pistol, which, of course, does no harm to Ma Shan, and the hero gets at his disposal a fake gun - accurate copy of the lost weapon.

Returning home, the hero falls asleep, and in the morning he wakes up the phone: his ex-lover - Li Xiaomen ( Ning Jing ) was killed, and it was from the missing weapon that Ma Shan becomes the main suspect. Managing to make excuses, the policeman realizes that the true target of the killer was Zhou Xiaogang (Shi Liang), a local businessman and liquor mogul and lover Li Xiaomen. The police take him under surveillance, hoping that the offender, who has two more rounds left, will come for him himself. At this time, Ma Shan decided on a gamble. Having hidden the businessman in the basement of his house, he, having changed clothes in his clothes, goes to the station and waits. After a long wait, a man comes up behind him and shot Ma Shan seriously. The offender is a small noodle deliveryman - stutter Liu, whose relatives died from low-grade alcohol purchased from a businessman. Having realized his mistake, he is going to return to Ma Shan's house and kill the businessman with the last cartridge, but the policeman takes out the starting pistol taken from the thief and provokes Liu to shoot, thereby spending the last cartridge. Despite severe injuries, Ma Shan is happy: the weapons were found on time, and the criminal will not kill anyone else. A special forces detachment arrests the killer, and the main character, having received his weapon back, happily walks along the platform, not paying attention to his wounds.

The film won an award at the Beijing Student Film Festival in 2002 for Best Directorial Debut.

• " Missing Weapons ” on the Internet Movie Database
• Missing Weapons on the allmovie website
• Missing Weapons on Rotten Tomatoes

Reviews

• David Nusair The Missing Gun . Reel Film Reviews (June 20, 2004). Date of appeal May 25, 2015.
• James Mudge. Missing Gun (2002) Movie Review . BeyondHollywood.com (June 25, 2005). Date of appeal May 25, 2015.
• Xun Qiang ("The Missing Gun" ) . Reeling Reviews with Laura & Robin Clifford. Date of appeal May 25, 2015.