Only the River Flows

Banpo Town, rural China, 1990s. A woman’s body is found by the river. Ma Zhe, Chief of the Criminal Police, heads up the murder investigation that leads to an apparent arrest. His superiors hurry to congratulate him, but several clues push Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the hidden behavior of his fellow citizens.

“In a seamy offbeat world englobing the gleaming surfaces of Park Chan-wook’s terrific “Decision to Leave,” all scuzzed-up and grimy and the Diao Yinan’s “Black Coal, Thin Ice” with seams of absurdist dark comedy, Wei Shujun’s inventive riff on Asian-noir gives the expanding subgenre something its Chinese contributions often lack: a pitch-black sense of humor. Like the greatest genre exponent, Raymond Chandler, Wei cares less about logistics than about mood in this rainy, grainy movie (DP Chengma shoots on film in low light, giving the images a lovely dirty texture), lending the film in a cool retro vibe and a schlocky Brian De Palma-style opening, Humanizing quirks and flourishes abound, providing profundity to this touchingly melancholic portrait of small-town desperation.” -Variety.