In director Wei Shujun’s gritty film noir, chief police Ma Zhe investigates a series of murders in a riverside town in rural China in the 1990s. An arrest is made quickly, but clues push the policeman to dive deeper, descending into madness in pursuit of the truth. Reminiscent of Chinatown and Memories of a Murder, Only the River Flows is a masterfully styled ode to a bygone cinematic era.

(China, 2023) Directed by Wei Shujun, 101 min., subtitled, not rated

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