Liao Fan

Gwei Lun-Mei

Wang Xuebing

Wang Jingchun

Yu Ailei

Ni Jingyang

Vivian Qu

Diao Yinan

Dong Jinsong

Huang Bojun

Yang Hong

Yang Hongyu

Decor Elaine

Han Sanping

Liu Qiang

Zhang Yang

Li Danfeng

Shen Yang

Wen Zi

Drama

Crime

Mystery

Thriller

白日焰火

Omnijoi Media

Boneyard Entertainment China

China Film Group Corporation

China

CinemaSerf

OK, so yes - this is a very slow burn a times with far too many establishing and shots of decaying urban industrialisation, but when the action does actually focus on the story it's not a bad crime drama at all. We start with an arm sticking out of a pile of coal. The cops arrive and "Zhang" (Fan Liao) is soon on the case. He can only identify the corpse, though, and unimpressed his bosses ensure that five years down the line he is reduced to working as a security guard with a penchant for the bottle too. What we now know, though, is that there were a series of such killings and they are now under his fingernails. He is obsessed with identifying the killer. Reuniting with his for partner "Liang" (Xuebing Wang), they pick up a trail that leads them to the enigmatic "Wu Zhizhen" (Gwei Lun-Mei). "Zhang" now vacillates between an attraction to this woman and to suspecting her, but has she anything to do with the crimes? It's a curiously developed film, this. It proceeds in fits and starts before a denouement that is rushed and rather unfulfilling. It looks gritty and dark, the weather - cold and miserable, also helps to create an atmosphere and the acting is competent. Maybe it could lose twenty minutes of preambling characterisations, but it has a solid story with director Yi'nan Diao getting close to the the best from Fan Liao and his lumps of coal.

普通话

Black Coal, Thin Ice

Official UK Trailer