Skip to main content
Only the River Flows film image

Only the River Flows

This event has passed

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

Director

Wei Shujun

Cast

Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai, Tong Linkai

Credits
Country of Origin

China

Year

2023

Language

In Mandarin with English subtitles

19+
101 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

There's Still Tomorrow

Dir. Paola Cortellesi
118 min

A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre