Black Coal, Thin Ice

Excellent film! Arrived in mint condition.

A "beautiful" film (not scenery!). Just enough dialog (translated) and action to keep one guessing and reacting. China is not all HK, Shanghai or, even, Beijing. Kinda like Fargo gone Chinese.

This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. Even though, by Western standards, the third act is a bit of an anti-climax. Still, it's a taut, skillfully-photographed mystery. The director has mastered a move I associate his countryman, Hou Hsiou-Hsien: long takes that manage to flip your perspective with a simple bit of staging. As an example, I will spoil the first shot of the film. As first you think the camera is static atop a pile of coal. You hear trucks moving around, and you see coal dumped into frame (along with a body part). Then, a moment later the shadows shift and the camera pans up. You realize the coal pile is not static, but in fact in the back of a giant truck, which is part of a long convoy of coal trucks.The film, without cheating the believability of the narrative, has many, many more surprises, large and small. Its male and female protagonists are flawed and fascinating. It's decade-long time frame reminded me of other epic detective stories like ZODIAC or TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON ONE, but the mystery has at once more resolution and less. You'll see.If you like modern noir, this is a definite blind buy.

This movie was directed in a different genre than American can categorize and it was entertaining. If you ask for more than that I can't help you my friend. It's foreign. It's good. There is mystery. Oh yeah and everything comes together. It's not that genre breaking. In that sense you'll likely be entertained. Why am I even here? If it was bad why would I even be here right?

A beautifully shot, stylish film noir permeated with bleakness, this work (as other reviewers have noted) goes nowhere and takes it time getting there. Like good film noirs, It is menacing, sometimes uneasy to watch, as the heroes are never truly that. Yet, this simmer never boils. That said, cinematographer Dong Jinsong creates a visually striking world that rightfully earned him a 2014 Achievement in Cinematography from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The screenplay (written by the talented director Yi'nan Diao) clearly needed work. I'd hate to think how boring the original edit must have been, apparently clocking in very long. The suspense is there but fizzles as the movie drags on. Lots of unrealized potential.

I'm giving it two stars instead of one because I appreciated the bleak Chinese winter ambience. Otherwise I considered this to be a total disaster. Overly arty, slow moving, and very hard to understand. The motivations of the characters are inexplicable. Numerous plot threads are never satisfactorily explained, and there are scenes in the movie that seem entirely random and unrelated to everything else. If you want to see a tightly plotted film noir with unexpected plot twists, stay away from this downer.

Decent crime-mystery movie .

This movie... I couldn't get into it. It's shot well, and has some great performances, but the mystery doesn't gel the way one wants a mystery to unfold. And I SO wanted to like this.Perhaps I've seen too many American/European detective films, and have a preconceived notion of what SHOULD happen (although enjoying all unexpected twists and turns)... and while I don't want something as cut and dry as a CSI episode the elements that make up this film, and the damaged characters need a better jigsaw puzzle of a narrative to work satisfactorily.And the ending makes no sense... even for an art house sensibility.

I just love Chinese mystery movies with a lot of intrigue in it, an this one dose not disappoint on that level,I have to say though when they have movies with murder, they go all out that's for dam sure, they really knowhow to shock you to your core, the thing I love about it is it's like a slow burn, waiting for things to happenfrustrated me so much I wanted to reach out an grab them for there ineptness, like they forgot how policeprocedural work, if you watch this you'll see, man was mad, but the movie got some very good moments to it,ice skating an black coal never knew it go hand in hand, just don't lose your leg, you'll see,love this movie that the Chinese seem to do better than others, even if I have to read subtitles sometimes goway too fast for my taste,Mystery An Black Coal...Okay I Get It..

item arrived as described. interesting movie.