Happy Lunar New Year from the USC US-China Institute!
Black Coal, Thin Ice 白日焰火
The UCLA International Institute presents the film, "Black Coal, Think Ice," as part of their 2014 China Onscreen Biennial.
Where
![](https://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/styles/event_node_featured/public/events/featured-image/ucla-black-coal-thin-ice_0.jpg?itok=ve9jPin6)
Closing Film
West Coast Premiere 2014
Director/Screenwriter: Diao Yinan
Producer: Vivian Qu, Wan Juan
Cinematographer: Dong Jinsong
Production Designer: Liu Qiang
Editor: Yang Hongyu Sound: Zhang Yang
Composer: Wen Zi
Cast: Liao Fan, Gwei Lun-mei, Wang Xuebing, Wang Jingchen, Yu Ailei, Ni Jingyang
DCP, color, in Mandarin w/ English s/t, 106 min.
Five years after a botched arrest for a grisly murder, an ex-cop on the skids stumbles back onto his old case. This time fresh murders lead him to a young widow behind the counter at a dry-cleaner’s. In a suspenseful third feature that garnered him the Golden Bear at the recent Berlinale, director Diao Yinan casts noir compulsion and doom, Fargo-like, in the wintry coal-belt of northern China. Here, danger slow-burns beneath the icy frost, and whodunit becomes a phenomenological question as perplexing as a show of fireworks in bright daylight. – Cheng-Sim Lim
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