Movies - Suzhou River

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	Movies - Suzhou River

Suzhou River (苏州河) (2000) is a film noir by Lou Ye about a tragic love story set in contemporary Shanghai. The film is typical of "sixth generation" Chinese filmmakers in its subject matter and style.

Writer-director Lou Ye's second film, Suzhou River takes as its background the chaotically built-up riverside architecture of factory buildings and abandoned warehouses along the Suzhou River, rather than the glitzy new face of Shanghai.

Plot outline

The story follows the transient lives of four people at the margins of Chinese society. An anonymous videographer follows the story of Mardar (Jia Hongsheng), a small-time crook and motorcycle courier; and Moudan (Zhou Xun), the daughter of a rich businessman, whom Mardar is hired to ferry around town. Mardar and Moudan fall in love but when Mardar gets involved in a botched attempt to kidnap her, Moudan commits suicide. Devastated, Mardar catches sight of Memei, the videographer's elusive girlfriend (also played by Zhou Xun) and becomes convinced she's his lost love.

Analysis

Building the narrative from chance encounters and interconnected lives, Lou hints toward Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express
. Stylistically the film also owes something to Wong's restless visual sensibility: jump cuts abound and director of photography Wang Yu's dextrous handheld camerawork snakes like the river itself. One of the most memorable images in the film is that of Moudan dressed as a mermaid, bathed in a pool of warm golden light, her tail sunk in the murky waters of the Suzhou. Lou's decision to use the figure of the mermaid - which is not part of Chinese folklore - is characteristic of the global outlook of his sixth generation film-making contemporaries.

Similarly he markedly embraces what was presumably illicit cinema history by paying a clear stylistic debt to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
. The river, the bridge, the obsessive, haunted protagonist and the girl who might not be quite who she seems: this shares elements that have figured in countless movies inspired by Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece.

Awards

Suzhou River premiered at the 1999 International Film Festival Rotterdam and won the prestigious Tiger award. It went on to be critically acclaimed in the West, winning the FIPRESCI Award (2000 Viennale), Grand Prix (2000 Paris Film Festival), and Critics' Award (2002 Fantasporto).

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