Mystery, directed by Lou Ye
A love triangle and a murder case play out, often through flashbacks, in this gritty urban drama. Lu Jie (Hao Lei) is befriended at the playground by Sang Qi (Qi Xi), seemingly out of the blue. As it turns out, their similarly aged children and their taste in clothing aren't all they have in common. But even as the story (slowly) unfolds, motivations are never made clear. The female characters never progress beyond their labels – wife, mistress – and the man at the centre of the rivalry, Yongzhao (Qin Hao), fails to develop beyond a rake in a fashionable scarf. What exactly do they all see in each other? Set against the backdrop of upwardly mobile ambition and China's new possibilities, Mystery, which owes much to film noir, offers a dark view of contemporary China in every way.
Oct. 4, 6:30 p.m., Granville 7; Oct. 5, 10:30 a.m., Granville 7