"The winds of November are blowing, my friends, chilling our souls in the Musuracan shadows and grayscale skies. Making us hanker for some noir, but grieving over our options on long autumnal nights...Maybe you’re feeling some ennui and are looking for something different. Maybe you’d enjoy some Chinese neo-noir.." https://culturalgutter.com/2023/11/23/getting-away-with-it-diao-yinans-neo-noir/ #noir #FilmHistory #FilmMastodon #movies #NeoNoir #DiaoYinan

Hey, it's Noirvember--are you looking for some cool reasonably new noir? I write about some excellent Chinese neo-noir films! https://culturalgutter.com/2023/11/23/getting-away-with-it-diao-yinans-neo-noir/ #noir #Noirvember #movies #NeoNoir #DiaoYinan

#DiaoYinan's #WildGooseLake is a ridiculously good looking noir/policier. If his Black Coal Thin Ice was a cold noir w/its wintry setting, this film is opposite- its subtropical setting & constant rain provide the film soaked w/atmosphere & vivid colors under flickering fluorescent lights. And it's a beauty, thanks to Diao's regular DP Dong Jingsong. Along with recent Long Day's Journey into Night, it continues the tradition of 'Tropical Noir' of Wong Kar-Wai's work. #HuGe #LiaoFan #KweiLunMei

Some seriously underexposed cinematography, use of long lenses & cold colors make Night Train's setting - an expansive, snowy industrial city, more inhuman. But it's also amazingly gorgeous. The film has a lot of elements borrowed from Kieslowski - the slutty neighbor, weighted, fateful encounters, down to Liu Dan's short hair. The opening reminds you of Olmi's ballroom opening of I Fidanzati. Diao's China is a dark place though, inhabited by numb yet lonely people. #diaoyinan #chinesecinema

Zhao, a disgraced cop, is not brutish & doesn't necessarily use violence. But his heart is colder than Nothern China in winter. Only in the dance sequence he lends any kind of emotion for the audience. The greatness of this sad/funny dance number is about the same level as the ending in Beau Travail. Diao's China, the Beijing Olympics still 4 years away, is still very much provincial, yet fast changing & cold-hearted. A gritty neon soaked noir. #DiaoYinan #LiaoFan #chinesecinema #neonoir