Netflix’s Sound Of Silence Ending Explained & Movie Recap: Does Li Find Justice For The Deaf Community?

In the Mandarin legal drama thriller “Sound of Silence,” most things are black and white, except the main character, Li Qi, who, for a large chunk of time, walks around in a morally grey area. That’s also something that makes this movie work, by making the narrative both interesting and exciting. While the story is all too formulaic with a very predictable ending that you can see from miles away, the movie is quite well made, and the acting is solid enough to root for the characters. Having a CODA—Li Qi—at the center of it is, of course, the main deal, as I’ve already said. “Sounds of Silence” does have a straightforward, very definitive ending, but in this article we’re going to put the movie under our lens and simplify it further. The only confusion some of you might have is probably the legal jargon if you focus a bit too much on that. Despite all the legal mumbo jumbo, “Sound of Silence” is certainly more about “the people” than “the law.”

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the movie? 

Ghetto lawyer Li Qi and his friend/partner, Tang, struggle to make their ends meet while they aspire to open their own law firm one day. Li is a CODA, with both her parents being deaf, but it’s been a while since he has deserted the deaf community in order to make a new identity for himself. He does return home to pay respect to his dead mother at times, but that’s about it. When Li is approached by dead teenager Zhang Xiaorui to help her brother in an upcoming trial, he flat-out refuses because she doesn’t have much money to pay. Later on, Li is requested by a big-shot lawyer to take the case as a legal aid, for which he will be compensated. The fact that Li knows sign language automatically puts him in an advantageous position with the deaf community. 

When Li sees Zhang again on the street, she is busy scamming people. When he confronts her, she responds that she’s only doing all this to pay his fees (as he has refused to lend his service for free). When Li lets her know that he’s willing to come on board for free, Zhang doesn’t believe him and takes flight. Eventually though, Li goes to a police station to pick up Zhang, who got herself involved in a street scuffle with a man whom she has injured with a scratch. Thanks to Li intervening, Zhang walks free as the man, upon knowing the girl doesn’t have parents and her brother is in jail—all of it true, but Li signs Zhang to put on a performance as well—decides to not pursue a case against her. 

As far as the case of Zhang’s brother goes, here’s what happened. Zhang and her brother, who’s also deaf, mortgaged their house to this company called Set Sale Finance, which promised them to get monetary return without investment. Obviously this was a scam, and when the company’s goon came to take their house away, they had a physical altercation with Zhang. Seeing his sister getting abused like that, Zhang’s brother stabbed one of the goons with a pair of scissors, leading the guy to end up in the ICU. Of course, he immediately called for help and also the police, but as things stand now, he is now on trial for what he did and looking at a long-term penalty. 

Why does Li Qi help Zhang?

This is where things get dicey. While it first seems like Li, despite taking compensation for helping Zhang, has all the good intentions, it soon appears to be something else. While looking for possible ways to save Zhang’s brother from a long sentence, Li and Tang start visiting the other houses around the neighborhood. In one of the houses, they meet the Pan family, where the guy mentions that his mother has made a video of the incident. However, the woman refuses to help the lawyers and shuts the door on them. During the trial, though, Li magically submits the video as evidence—which clearly shows Zhang’s brother having no ulterior motive and even trying to help—resulting in the guy receiving only a six-month sentence. 

But how did Li get his hands on the video? Cut to the scene where he dropped Zhang and was chased by two goons. It is revealed that the goons didn’t harm him; instead, they took him to Mr. Jin, the white-haired evil man who’s running everything, under the guise of this company called Thousand Gold. Jin proposes to Li that they make a deal where he’ll get hired by Set Sales, and Zhang will receive a scholarship, which will cover the cost of her house and higher studies. What’s more shocking is the big-shot lawyer that went to Li first is also involved in this. Jin’s plan is to let Zhang’s brother get away, closing the matter and getting the ghetto lawyer on their payroll. He doesn’t mind if Zhang gets her house back, because he has acquired other houses by pulling off the same fraudulent scheme, and having Li on his side makes him ironclad. So the price of helping Zhang and also himself practically means hurting the entire deaf community, but Li ends up choosing that.

That’s how he manages to change the course of the case. But Zhang, being the honest and ideological person she is, refuses to take the scholarship. And upon knowing what his friend has done, Tan also chooses to abandon him after having a heated argument over what’s right and what’s wrong. Ironically, this happens on the day of the opening of their farm! Tan walks away, and Li goes on to cut the ribbon. That also suggests that he has joined the dark side for his own benefit.

Does Li Qi have a change of heart? 

After Li’s betrayal, it becomes all too easy for the bad guys to take control of the houses of everyone who got manipulated in the scheme. That includes Mrs. Pan and her son as well. When she goes to the police station, Jin’s muscle—also deaf—arrives and threatens her with the safety of her son if she speaks up. Her son is still tortured, though, as they feel he deserves the punishment for the mother’s disobedience. But thanks to this, not a single person who lost their house dared to go to the police again. Li, who’s fully embraced a lifestyle of lavishness, is visited by Mr. Dong, whom he previously met during the trial of Zhang’s brother. Dong was really impressed with what Li did for the deaf siblings—obviously he had no idea about what went on under the table—and has now come to him with the hope of Li doing something to convince the victims to go to the police. Li doesn’t say no directly, but Dong realizes this is not the man he was hoping for. Li’s assistant also lets him know that one victim, Mrs. Wu, an elderly woman, also came for help. Not only does Li ignore it, but he also gets mad because of his assistant’s remarks about Mrs. Wu being someone like him. Clearly Li is not comfortable with his CODA identity, which is a sad thing. However, that ultimately changes. 

Li’s guilt doesn’t take much time to catch up with him; this is not an inherently bad guy, after all! I guess hearing people got inspired by his bravery—what he did for Zhang—was the trigger here, as he returns to the old neighborhood and visits the shopkeeper. This is the same guy we see early on in the movie when Li warns him about not buying anything from Set Sail. The man clearly loves Li, no matter what, and we finally get to know he has been seeing Li since childhood. When Li used to be bullied by his schoolmates for being a CODA, this man used to console him. Li’s guilt-ridden journey doesn’t end there as he sees Zhang has gone back to scamming people on the street. But when he goes to confront her, she takes it out on him by venting about her situation. Li blames her for not taking the money, but Zhang is adamant about her principle. The two have an argument where Li ultimately breaks down in tears, and you’ve got to feel at least a little bad for this person here. His means are wrong, but he was never given a long rope in life either. Zhang and Li ultimately make up, and Li decides to do the right thing, which is fighting for his community and getting them their houses back. 

Does Mrs. Wu die?

Mrs. Wu did go to Li for help, but she couldn’t find any. The old woman holds herself responsible for getting everyone in Set Sail’s scheme—we do see her getting charmed by Jin and recruiting people. Even her own son has blamed her for what happened. Naturally, Wu trying to kill herself by causing an explosion in her apartment makes sense. She is carrying the guilt of ruining the lives of so many people. Upon knowing what the old woman is trying to do, Li tries his best to talk her out of it. But ultimately, he fails to do it as Mrs. Wu goes forward with her plan, resulting in her dying horribly. At the very same moment, we see Jin celebrating by throwing a gold chain in the air on his yacht—obviously the movie is deliberately putting the contrast between privileged and underprivileged here, and it’s working as well.

Does Li Qi win the case?

Facing challenges in his attempt to find justice for the deaf community was never going to be easy for Li Qi. The moment he walks into the office of that big shot lawyer, who’s called President Lee, it becomes very evident. Is it even a surprise that Set Sails would deny everything and also say Jin has no part in the company? Also, Jin’s attempt to pivot his company in a whole other direction also proves that he is trying to wash his hands of the trouble. To fight that, Li plans to turn this into a criminal case. Naturally, Jin does his best to stop our ghetto lawyer. He sends his muscles to Li’s office to threaten him and, more importantly, make the deaf people back out. That works as it gets revealed that Li used to be on Jin’s payroll before his revolt.

Thankfully, Zhang doesn’t withdraw her lawsuit, giving Li the opportunity to go to the courthouse and fight the evil. To take down Ji, Li goes all out by telling how he himself is aware of Jin’s shady activities, as he used to work for them. He also presents supporting documents of Jin taking the house of as many as eleven people. But without any of the people appearing in the court, the judge seems skeptical to give the judgment in Li’s favor. That’s when another miracle happens as we see all the familiar faces appearing, one by one. Turns out, Li has managed to send them a message by using sign language during his statement. While his words narrated what happened, his gestures were basically telling all the deaf people that he was one of them, at the end of the day. If that wasn’t enough to melt hearts, then what else would be? 

“Sound of Silence” was always supposed to be a story about good triumphing over bad, and by letting Li win in the end and Jin go to prison, the movie does exactly that. As an icing on the cake, Zhang gets her acceptance for the art school, and the movie leaves us with the image of her celebrating with Li, Tan, and everyone else. I thought that was very fitting for an ending; what do you think?

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