Chinese director Diao Yinan's much anticipated follow-up to his breakthrough film Black Coal, Thin Ice,THE WILD GOOSE LAKE, is a noir crime thriller about a gangster on the run, wet in the nooks and crannies of densely populated Wuhan in central China.
The elegantly down-and-dirty film follows the desperate attempts of small-time mob boss Zhou Zenong (the charismatic Hu Ge) to stay alive after he mistakenly kills a cop and a dead-or-alive reward is put on his head. Director Yinan proves his action bona fides in a series of stylized set pieces and violent shocks, simultaneously devising a romance between Zhou and a mysterious young woman (Gwei Lun-mei) who's out to either help or betray him.
Jessica Kiang of Variety writes that "Diao Yinan delivers a definitive Chinese crime noir, in which the ravishing style and inventive staging form the substance. Staged and executed with...slick, dark dazzle. Reteaming with cinematographer Dong Jinsong, Diao shows an extraordinarily elastic mastery of form. The Wild Goose Lake is like an organic feature of the Chinese cinematic landscape, as though it pooled onto the screen in all its oily, murky glory, having welled up from deep inside the ground. Suddenly, China feels like the noirest place on Earth." While Nate Jones of Vulture pens "
Have you ever imagined what John Wick would be like if it was set not in an imaginary version of New York, but instead a remote city in China's industrial hinterland? Wonder no more, because here comes Diao Yinan's ultrastylish neo-noir The Wild Goose Lake, which offers some of the most thrillingly original fight scenes you'll see onscreen this year".
BONUS FEATURES
- Diao Yinan Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
- Interview with stars Hu Ge and Gwei Lun Mei
- Bonus Short Film -- The Goddess (Directed by Renkai Tan | United States, China | Chinese with English subtitles| 7 minutes) -- A young woman decides to take justice into her own hands after a traumatic assault. Based on a true story.
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Type: Blu-ray/DVD/Digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu)
Running Time: 110 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen
Audio: 5.1 Surround Sound/2.0 Stereo
Language: Chinese with Optional English, French and Chinese Subtitles
