Suzhou River

Lou Ye's brief, striking film noir is like something out of a Far East James M. Cain or Cornell Woolrich, with a bit of “Vertigo” on the side. Your unseen, subjective narrator is a freelance videographer in Shanghai, whose weary camera-eye lens takes us into a strange story of desire, crime, loss, and obsession. Mardar is a motorbike deliveryman, not too particular about the packages he carries, and his pliable ethics bring him under the influence of a shady businessman who hatches a highly illegal scheme involving Mardar's unwitting teenage girlfriend Moudon. Something goes wrong, and the girl vanishes into the depths of urban legend as a “mermaid” glimpsed from time to time along the banks of the city's Suzhou River. The videographer – who, since he's become part of the story, may or may not be telling us all that he knows – has a lurking suspicion about the missing Moudon; can she be his own on-again-off-again lover, Meimei, a seductive, houseboat-dwelling nightclub performer with an underwater act? Beware, the Suzhou exacts a price for giving up its secrets. Neonlit and subtly ominous, SUZHOU RIVER flows dark and dangerous, with no lifeguard on duty. (In Mandarin with English subtitles)