Suzhou River

China Deutschland 1999/2000 Spielfilm

Summary

A faceless, nameless videographer tells a love story set in Shanghai. Mardar is a motorcycle courier, Moudan is a young woman, whose father has hired him to drive her around. They fall in love. When Mardar takes part in a plot to kidnap Moudan, she throws herself into the Suzhou River. Years later, Mardar thinks he recognises his lost love – in the person of Meimei, the girlfriend of the video narrator, who performs as a mermaid in a nightclub…

As in Hitchcock's "Vertigo", the love in "Suzhou he" is resurrected from the dead. Shot on coarse-grain 16mm stock, the film is a captivating Chinese variation on the neo-noir trend of the era. At the same time, it draws a portrait of a generation that had been uprooted, shifting between neo-realistic urban images that capture Shanghai in a radical state of flux, and night-time passages that conjure up the alternative sub-culture. Director Lou Ye thus creates a cinematic puzzle of illusion and reality, all the while chronicling a wonderfully tragic love story.

Source: 72. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)

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Credits

Director

Screenplay

Director of photography

Editing

Cast

All Credits

Shoot

    • Schanghai, China
Duration:
2259 m, 82 min
Format:
35mm, 1:1,66
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Dolby SR
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 29.08.2001, 88508, ab 6 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (NL): 29.01.2000, Rotterdam, IFF;
Kinostart (DE): 27.09.2001;
TV-Erstsendung (DE FR): 28.05.2003, Arte

Titles

  • Originaltitel (DE) Suzhou River
  • Originaltitel (CN) Su Zhou He

Versions

Original

Duration:
2259 m, 82 min
Format:
35mm, 1:1,66
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Dolby SR
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 29.08.2001, 88508, ab 6 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (NL): 29.01.2000, Rotterdam, IFF;
Kinostart (DE): 27.09.2001;
TV-Erstsendung (DE FR): 28.05.2003, Arte

Restaurierte und digitalisierte Fassung

Duration:
79 min
Format:
DCP
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Dolby
Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 13.02.2022, Berlin, IFF - Classics

Awards

Fantasporto Film Festival 2002
  • Kritikerpreis
Viennale 2000
  • FIPRESCI Preis
IFF Rotterdam 2000
  • Tiger Award
Paris Film Festival 2000
  • Preis für die beste Darstellerin
  • Hauptpreis, Bester Film