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
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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