First Teaser for Wei Shujun’s Haunting Mystery ‘Only the River Flows’
by Alex Billington
May 10, 2023
Source: YouTube
“Fate is all the truth we cannot see.” Cinetic Marketing has unveiled a festival teaser trailer for the Chinese indie thriller titled Only the River Flows, the latest creation from a filmmaker named Wei Shujun (also of Striding Into the Wind and Ripples of Life before). This is premiering next week at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. A police chief investigates a series of murders in a riverside town in rural China in the 1990s. An arrest is made quickly, though mysterious clues push the policeman to dive deeper into the hidden behavior of the locals. All the synopsis end there, without giving any more hints as to what’s going on. The film stars Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai, and Tong Linkai. This is a very mysterious trailer with a number of fly-by shots at the end showing how this is much more expansive then just a simple story of a murder. Keep an eye out for buzz on this from Cannes soon – looks damn good.
Here’s the festival teaser trailer for Wei Shujun’s Only the River Flows, direct from YouTube:
Set in the 1990s, Banpo Town, rural China. A woman’s body is found by the river. Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), Chief of the Criminal Police, heads up the murder investigation that quickly leads to an obvious arrest. His superiors hurry to congratulate him and urge him to close the case and move on, but several clues push Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the hidden behavior of his fellow citizens. Based on a short story by Yu Hua, the film is about a homicide detective investigating a series of murders in a rural village. Only the River Flows is directed by up-and-coming indie Chinese filmmaker Wei Shujun, director of the films Striding Into the Wind and Ripples of Life previously. The screenplay is written by Kang Chunlei and Wei Shujun, adapted from Yu Hua’s novel titled “Mistake by the River“. Produced by Xufeng Huang. This is premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival this month playing in Un Certain Regard. No other international release dates have been set yet – stay tuned for updates & reviews from Cannes. First impression? Curious about it?
