Jiangdong Province, 1995. Police captain Ma Zhe is sent to investigate the murder of an old woman in a remote hamlet. The prime suspect is a grown man with an intellectual disability who lived with the old lady, but Ma isn’t convinced.
Wei Shujun cements his reputation as one of the most exciting new Chinese filmmakers with this moody, muddy neo-noir, very much in the vein of Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder. It should be open and shut, but the more Ma digs into the case, the worse things get. As the death toll mounts, he begins to doubt his own sanity. Based on a story by the acclaimed writer Yu Hua (To Live), this artfully composed movie has a subversive, absurdist streak which keeps us asking questions of our own.
An enigmatic, progressively more engrossing noir directed by Wei Shujun, structurally inventive, if not downright format-twisting. The cinematography is genuinely star-making.
Screen International
Humanizing quirks and flourishes abound, providing whatever profundity this rather touchingly melancholic portrait of small-town desperation can muster.
Jessica Kiang, Variety
A film noir that’s so vintage it comes wrapped in crackling celluloid and old cassette tapes. A puzzle-like homage to the noir genre itself, with echoes of Jean-Pierre Melville, Chinatown, and Memories of Murder.
The Hollywood Reporter
Wei Shujun
Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai, Tong Linkai
China
2023
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Tang Xiaohui, Dorothy Zeng, Li Chan
Producer
Tang Xiaohui, Huang Xufeng, Li Chan, Shen Yang
Screenwriter
Kang Chunlei, Wei Shujun
Cinematography
Chengma
Editor
Mattieu Laclau
Production Design
Zhang Menglun
Also Playing
Frankenstein
Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.
James Whale's Frankenstein (1931)
"It's alive!" Nearly a century later this iconic take on Mary Shelley's novel still kicks: the production design is impressive, Whale's lean, angular direction has plenty of snap, and Boris Karloff imbues the monster with no little pathos.
Bride of Frankenstein
Funnier, more outrageous, and just as goth as the 1931 hit, this is a black comedy about mad scientists playing god, the monstrous craving for a mate, about the ultimate male-order bride, and her indelible response to being married off to a mouldier man.
