Directed by Wei Shujun • 2023 • China
Starring Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai
When a woman’s body washes up on the shore in small-town China in the 1990s, the local chief of police, Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), is tasked with leading the investigation. An obvious suspect leads to a hasty arrest, though the mystery lingers in Ma Zhe’s mind. What kind of darkness is truly at play here? As torrents of rain envelop the town, Ma Zhe will be drawn to the edge of madness in pursuit of truth. Both a tantalizing cinematic puzzle and a sharp-edged portrait of provincial paranoia, Wei Shujun’s ultra-atmospheric, retro-stylized noir captures the pulpy proceedings in gritty, textured film grain that goes beyond period recreation to fully evoke the look and feel of a bygone era.
Up Next in Chinese Crime Thrillers
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Chongqing Hot Pot
Directed by Yang Qing • 2016 • China
Starring Chen Kun, Bai Baihe, Qin HaoThis wild, genre-blasting blend of rollicking comedy and blood-spattered crime caper follows three friends who, when they open a hot pot restaurant in a former bomb shelter, are surprised to discover that it’s linked by a...
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Streetwise
Directed by Na Jiazuo • 2021 • China
Starring Liu Jiuxiao, Huang Miyi, Sha BaoliangAn at once gritty and intoxicatingly stylized portrait of a group of outcasts struggling to survive in a fading riverside town, STREETWISE unfolds in 2004 in Zhenwu, one of the many small villages in the Sichuan ...
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The Fallen Bridge
Directed by Li Yu • 2022 • China
Starring Ma Sichun, Karry Wang, Fan WeiA searing saga of capitalist corruption, revenge, and a woman’s relentless pursuit of justice, this socially conscious crime drama begins when a bridge in the busy Chinese city of Huangque collapses in broad daylight. From ...
