Only the River Flows

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