Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 04/06/25

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sunday, April 6, 2025

Black Coal, Thin Ice (Diao Yinan, 2014)

Liao Fan and Gwei Lun-mei in Black Coal, Thin Ice

Cast: Liao Fan, Gwei Lun-mei, Wang Xuebing, Wang Jingchun, Yu Ailei, Ni Jinyang. Screenplay: Diao Yinan. Cinematography: Dong Jingsong. Film editing: Yang Hongyu. Music: Wen Zi.

When body parts start turning up in coal deliveries to factories in northeast China, the police launch an investigation that culminates in a botched arrest attempt. During the shootout, detective Zhang Zili (Liao Fan) is seriously wounded. Five years later, Zhang has quit the force and is far gone in alcoholism when he reconnects with police detectives who have reopened the investigation: Dismembered bodies have started turning up again, and the victims have a connection to Wu Zhizhen (Gwei Lun-mei), the widow of the supposed victim of the earlier murder. Wu works for a dry cleaner, and Zhang decides to do his own investigation, dropping off a coat to be cleaned and striking up a conversation with Wu. One thing leads to another, and Zhang finds himself deeply involved with her. Writer-director Diao Yinan takes a film noir premise and turns it into a darkly playful detective drama, interpolating sometimes downright surreal incidents, like horse in a hallway and a fully clothed woman in a bathtub. It ends both satisfyingly -- the mystery is apparently solved -- and enigmatically -- with a scene that evokes the original Chinese title, which translates as "daylight fireworks." Diao's control of setting and atmosphere and the performances of Liao and Gwei are exemplary.