Black Coal, Thin Ice – 2014 Yi'nan Diao

Black Coal, Thin Ice – 2014 Yi’nan Diao

The third feature (and first I’ve seen) from Chinese director Yi’nan Diao—it’s a stylishly crafted neo noir about a serial killer and the investigator
The incident occurs in 1999 (with a dazzlingly neon infused violent sequence in a salon) and then pushes five years later as Fan Liao (lead actor) has left the police force and is spiraling out of control as an alcoholic
Dumping body parts, a shot from Yi’nan Diao – POV shot of the arm in the coal
Much of the film has paced, silent stalking sequences, but there are some brief explosions of violence like the incident with the ice stake
a brilliant tracking shot in the dance hall drifting from Fan Liao to the ice stakes of the killer at 56 minutes- a stalking shot
65—like Atomic Blonde (this is prior to Atomic Blonde) or Refn (this is the year after Only God Forgives) the neon colors play a big part in the film— it’s gorgeous to look at—a shot at 65 minutes of the red neon pouring in through the back seat of the car.

Like La La Land (this is two years prior to La La Land) this has the green Vertigo tinting— here at 70 minutes with the killer and femme fatale at the window

Lighting off the actors faces in the ferris wheel at 90
An abrupt ending- an art-house ending- as Dial cuts in the very middle of a tracking shot up to the roof and Fan Liao’s character in disarray
Winner in Berlin in 2014- the year of Grand Budapest Hotel in Berlin