Black Coal, Thin Ice is the kind of film that can only be felt, the charming point of the film is the indescribable feeling you get from the unique atmosphere. It's a suspense film with sort of Film-Noir feeling, but the plot of the case actually is not so important. As I said, what matters is the feeling. Those empty street shots, environment background sounds, strange acts and even some dark humor tastes. It even looks like a Jia Zhangke's film sometimes.(Well, Jia Zhangke's name did appear in the thank list in the end credits.) Such feeling reached the top in the ending of the pyrotechnical in daytime, it not only reflect the title (The Chinese title is Bai ri yan huo, which means The Daylight Pyrotechnix.) but also release the depressed emotion and atmosphere. (The Uncut Version has very strange but interesting dark humor style scenes in the ending, but they are cut out in the Censored Mainland China Theatrical Version.)

The atmosphere in the film is nearly perfect, however the romance relationship between two characters is not believable at all. The whole film is based on that relationship, but it didn't convince me. Without the reliable relationship, the rest of the film seems not make sense at all. So yeah, it's a rare and unique film in Chinese cinema, it is well did in many aspects, but I don't think it is qualified for Golden Berlin Bear.

My score: 7.5 for the Uncut Version, 7.3 for the Mainland China Censored Theatrical Version.

Getting the wonderful chance to be the host for an event held on IMDb's Film Festival board,I decided to take a closer look at the nominated titles. Introduced to Film Noir from Asia via John Woo's Heroic Bloodshed movie The Killer,I was intrigued to find a Neo-Noir from China on the list,which led to me breaking into the ice.

View on the film:

Burning up the black coal,co-writer/director Yi'nan Diao unveils a Neo-Noir landscape of frosty blues and decayed grey,with the people in the outdoor scenes being drained of as much colour as the body parts. Getting in from the cold, Diao sets Zhang's life in stylish chalk Neo-Noir reds and yellows which bluntly hit the pessimism of the case.

Spending 8 years writing the screenplay, Diao gives the Noir mystery a clinical edge,as Zhang becomes entwined in a detached love for Femme Fatale Wu.Cut down from the original 210 minutes cut, Diao sets the Noir in a glacial mold. Whilst giving light to some startling images,the sparse nature of the dialogue and the stilted solving of the mystery leaves to any feeling of intrigue being frozen under thin ice.