Jorge Coira as director. Luis Tosar as protagonist. Jorge Guerricaechevarra as screenwriter. And Vaca Films as producer. What could go wrong? Nothing in particular: As it appears, ‘Emperor Code’ is a most solvent and effective suspense thriller that works in equal proportion to the image it projects. Fluent and effective, also highly believable though not memorable nor particularly witty or insightful. ‘Emperor Code’ could take place in the same universe as ‘The Kingdom’. The feeling at the end is the same as with Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film: It’s about movement rather than pulling the blanket. And to get interesting just when the show is over. As Miguel Relln’s character says at one point, nobody wants to clean up “seriously” because it would be a real chaos, who knows if the end of the world as we know it. In this way the film does not go in for the kill, nor does it embrace this possible chaos. Come on, something like throwing the stone and hiding the hand. And all this without leaving us any scene to remember. Is there something really wrong with this? Not at all, ‘Emperor Code’ more than complies on all levels, being a very solid and entertaining film that works with the same subtlety as that stone that I mentioned before. Now, whoever is looking for something less conventional and even predictable… said stone will blow his face. And it is that below his race pace, his realistic staging or his conservative moral code ‘Emperor Code’, he doesn’t seem to have anything in particular to tell, beyond the obvious that we live in a corrupt world… which, on the other hand, is made in the image and likeness of that which we call “human being”.
By Juan Pairet
@Wanchopex *’Emperor Code’ has been the film commissioned to officially open the 25th edition of the Malaga Film Festival.
