Only the River Flows (2024)
Director: Wei Shujun Run Time: 102 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Hou Tianlai, Tong Linkai, Zeng Meihuizi, Zeng Qi, Zhu Yilong
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
About the film:
Official Selection, BFI London Film Festival 2023
Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival: Un Certain Regard 2023
Official Selection, 28th Busan International Film Festival
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 hidden behavior of his fellow citizens.
“Wei Shujun’s inventive riff on Asian noir gives the expanding subgenre something its Chinese contributions often lack: a pitch-black sense of humor. Humanizing quirks and flourishes abound, providing profundity to this touchingly melancholic portrait of small-town desperation.”
— Jessica Kiang, Variety
Equal parts atmospheric tour-de-force and beguiling puzzler, Only The River Flows (2024) is a masterfully styled ode to a bygone cinematic era and a sharp-edged portrait of provincial paranoia. The film, starring Zhu Yilong, is based on Yu Hua’s popular short novel Mistakes by the River.
About the filmmaker:
Wei Shujun was born in 1991 in Beijing, China. He started his career as an actor at 14 year old. He completed his master degree at the Communication University of China. His films include the short On the Border (2018) which won Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival, Striding into the Wind (2020) an Official Selection Cannes Film Festival, and Ripples of Life (2021) which participated in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes). His newest film, Only The River Flows (2024), is among China’s highest-grossing arthouse films ($43 million).
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