Black Coal, Thin Ice DVD Review

Director: Yi’nan Diao

Cast: Fan Liao, Lun Mei Gwei, Xuebing Wang

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 110 minutes

Golden Berlin Bear (Best Motion Picture) Winner at 2014’s Berlin International Film Festival, writer-director Yi’nan Diao’s Black Coal, Thin Ice isn’t your usual film noir. Set in a northern Chinese province between 1999 and 2004, this stylish, atmospheric tale is a far cry from those usually experienced by western audiences.

After body parts are discovered on conveyor belts in coal factory across the region, divorced cop Zhang (Liao Fan) is tasked with the investigation, which ultimately leads to a traumatic shooting and his own disgrace. Fast forward five years and an alcoholic Zhang is working as a security guard, barely holding down his job. When more body parts show up – now with ice skates attached – Zhang forces his way onto the investigation alongside his reluctant ex-colleagues, becoming obsessed with the mysterious widowed laundry clerk Wu Zhizhen (Gwei Lun-Mei) connected to the victims.

The first thing that strikes you about Black Coal, Thin Ice is the film’s downbeat and at times eerie atmosphere. Set during a long winter in an industrialised region, we observe rain-soaked storefronts, snow-covered tunnels and empty streets which, paired with the film’s sparse dialogue and diagetic music, help to build the sense of unease. The movie’s visual style intrigues with an interesting pallet of dreary greys and icy whites dispersed with the neon-glow of bars, beauty parlours and amusement rides, whilst Yi’nan Diao offers the audience some striking sequences and manages some moments of humour.

Unfortunately the film’s pacing is a problem and one that it fails to recover from. Preoccupied with maintaining its atmosphere, Black Coal, Thin Ice plods from one scene to another, failing to grip the audience for a sustained period. Despite a couple of mildly suspenseful or unpredictable moments – such as the reveal of how the body parts arrived in the factories – the plot feels stretched, lacks coherence at times and unnecessarily signposts developments, reducing their impact when these “twists” finally occur. There’s also a lack of fleshed-out characters in Black Coal, Thin Ice, with only the dislikeable lead Zhang and femme fatale Wu demonstrating anything other than a necessity to the plot.

Black Coal, Thin Ice is available to buy on DVD now.