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
Inedia
Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.
Drop Dead City
New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.