• List Price: $29.95  
• Your Price: $29.95
• In Stock: -1

You must login to place orders.




Not purchasing for a business? See our consumer site.

1990s small town China. A woman's body washes up in the local river. The chief of police, Ma Zhe, is tasked with heading up the investigation. An obvious perp leads to a hasty arrest, though the mystery lingers in Ma Zhe's mind. What kind of darkness is truly at play here? Director Wei Shujun's murky throwback film noir, gritty, textured film grain captures the pulpy proceedings. Torrents of rain envelop the characters as they descend into madness in pursuit of the truth. Equal parts atmospheric tour-de-force and beguiling puzzler, ONLY THE RIVER FLOWS 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.

Media

Watch trailer »

Sales Points

• 8 Wins and 16 more Nominations at International film festivals including Chicago, Stockholm, and Tokyo
• For fans of BLOOD SIMPLE, CHINATOWN, MEMORIES OF MURDER, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE
• Debuted at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the lauded Un Certain Regard sidebar
• Fresh from critically acclaimed theatrical release

Press Quotes

The filmmaker has a gift for disorientation... Wei's film increasingly blurs the line between the real and the imagined

     —Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

The craft brought to bear on Only the River Flows is captivating

     —Steven Scaife, Slant Magazine

[This crime thriller is] a gradual breakdown, complemented by Chengma Zhiyuan's thoughtful and measured cinematography

     —Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

Structurally inventive, if not downright format-twisting, it takes a Jacob's Ladder to 1990s China, where a beleaguered police detective tries so hard to unravel a killing that he spins himself into seeming madness

     —Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

A puzzle-like homage to the noir genre itself, with echoes of Jean-Pierre Melville, Chinatown and Memories of Murder

     —Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter