Screening times:
Friday, August 16, 6:30 PM
Saturday, August 17, 6:30 PM - Half-capacity screening
Wei Shujun | China | 2023 | 101m | Mandarin with English subtitles
with Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai, Tong Linkai
1990s, Banpo Town, rural China. A woman’s body is found by the river. Ma Zhe, Chief of the Criminal Police, heads up the murder investigation that quickly leads to an obvious arrest. As his superiors are keen to communicate their success, several clues push Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the secrets of his fellow citizens.
Another body appears, suggesting the work of a serial killer. As we go along, we begin to question whether Ma Zhe's perceptions of the world are based in a procedural reality, or if he's peering into the abyss in his own mind.
The filmmakers' commitment to American and French noir roots drips from every frame, including nods of the more meta variety: the police investigation unit is stationed in the city's dreary, disused cinema. Whenever Ma Zhe steps out into the day, he's standing in a deluge of rain or walking along a shadowy, serpentine river toward a grim future, all captured on atmospheric 16mm film.
Stylistic comparison's between director Wei Shujun and fellow purveyors of Chinese noir such as Diao Yinan (Black Coal, Thin Ice), Bi Gan (Long Day's Journey Into Night), and Jia Zhangke (Ash Is The Purest White) are legitimate, though Only The River Flows also owes a debt to Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder.
Wei Shujun remarked on the making his film: "I learned not to initially focus on metaphor but instead concentrate on the visual and audible elements that constitute cinema. Metaphor can come later (...) what I wanted to show is that destiny mocks people: the more we try to deeply discover the meaning of life, the more likely we are to miss it."
"Structurally inventive, if not downright format-twisting, it takes a Jacob’s Ladder to 1990s China, where a beleaguered police detective tries so hard to unravel a killing that he spins himself into seeming madness." -Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
"Only the River Flows is involving, brilliantly visual and tantalizingly ambiguous." -Alexa Dalby, Dog and Wolf
"Wei Shujun’s third feature offers a mix of dead-end detective work, doomed characters and surreal dreamscapes. ... What is not in doubt is his standing as one of China’s most complex cineastes." -Clarence Tsui, South China Morning Post
Silver Camera 300 - Manaki Brothers – International Cinematographers' Film Festival 2023
Fei Mu Awards: Best Film - Pingyao International Film Festival 2023
Panorama: Best Film - Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2023
Tickets $8.75 ($8 cash at the door if available).
Saturday, half capacity
