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Black Coal, Thin Ice

Original title: Bai ri yan huo
  • 20142014
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
9.1K
YOUR RATING
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.
Play trailer1:41
2 Videos
99+ Photos
CrimeMysteryThriller
An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
9.1K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Yi'nan Diao
  • Writer
    • Yi'nan Diao
  • Stars
    • Fan Liao
    • Gwei Lun-Mei
    • Xuebing Wang
  • Director
    • Yi'nan Diao
  • Writer
    • Yi'nan Diao
  • Stars
    • Fan Liao
    • Gwei Lun-Mei
    • Xuebing Wang
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 30User reviews
    • 138Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 29 wins & 47 nominations

    Videos2

    International Trailer
    Trailer 1:41
    Watch International Trailer
    Black Coal, Thin Ice: Workers Discuss The Case (US)
    Clip 2:41
    Watch Black Coal, Thin Ice: Workers Discuss The Case (US)

    Photos348

    Fan Liao and Gwei Lun-Mei in Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Fan Liao and Gwei Lun-Mei in Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
    Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Fan Liao
    Fan Liao
    • Zhang Zili
    Gwei Lun-Mei
    Gwei Lun-Mei
    • Wu Zhizhen
    • (as Lun-Mei Kwei)
    Xuebing Wang
    Xuebing Wang
    • Liang Zhijun
    Jingchun Wang
    Jingchun Wang
    • Rong Rong
    Ailei Yu
    • Captain Wang
    Jingyang Ni
    • Su Lijuan
    • Director
      • Yi'nan Diao
    • Writer
      • Yi'nan Diao
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The first cut was 210 minutes long.

    User reviews30

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    A lucky Golden Berlin Bear winner
    This 2014 Golden Berlin Bear winner (with a rare second Silver Berlin Bear award of BEST ACTOR for Fan Liao) is Chinese director Yi'nan Diao's third feature, and his first to be shown in cinemas and harvested over one hundred million RMB, roughly equivalent to 16 million dollars, thanks to the international accolades it received. Its original title can be translated verbatim as "White Day Fireworks", it is the name of a nightclub which would be revealed as a crucial thread to a murder case, furthermore Diao arranges a literal daytime firework show to climax the film in the coda, meanwhile, its official English title: Black Coal, Thin Ice, betrays the locations which relation all the murder cases during a five-year span.

    The film starts in 1999, in an unspecified city in China's North-east province Heilongjiang, Zhang (Liao) is a recently-divorced policeman, during a fresh case of a dismembered body scattered in sundry collieries where an I.D. card indicates the dead is Liang (Xuebing Wang), but due to his negligence, two fellow policemen are killed in operation while Zhang is also wounded. After that, the time jumps to 2004, now Zhang is a life-beaten drunkard and works as a security guard, two new dismembered bodies have been found, all link back to Liang's wife Wu (Gwei), whose mysterious mien attracts Zhang, he embarks on a personal investigation to follow her, strike up a conversation with her in the dry-cleaner where she works, and eventually ask her out for an ice-skating date. But at the same time, danger is lurking around him too, is Liang really dead? Or is Wu as innocent as she looks? Can all the mysteries be brought into daylight in the end or is there another lie involved? Diao smugly leaves an semi-opening end with many spurious clues (e.g. the cremains Wu buried under the tree Vs. her apparent lie of discarding it over the sea during the inquiry), to prompt viewers for disparate interpretations.

    This film is to a great extent inscribed as an art-house fare with its lurid background or foreground colour embedding in almost every scene, the visual palette is meticulously chosen and also overtly, Diao is a faithful apprentice of symbolism, from a battered ladybug on the bedsheets in the opening sequence, to an abrupt introduction of a deserted horse left by junkmen, until the firework finale reaches the hallmarks of its veiled fatalism pretentiousness buried in his not-so-justifiable script, there must be a more plausible reason behind a redemption by right of admitting a murder one might not execute, it unfortunately gives an impression of a desperate trick to glaze over the banality of the story, to romanticize the damsel-in-distress reverie.

    The whole story is a dancing-on-the-edge between a sex-driven anti-hero and a irresolute femme fatale, with a jarring red herring which leads to nowhere. But the two leads are giving fantastic performances, Fan Liao breathes out the irascible mentality stinkingly inflicted on a non-starter who clings to the last straw and strives to feel the ardor of living again. While Lun Mei Gwei from Taiwan, may seem to be an odd choice for a North-east girl, heedfully, she doesn't have many lines to give away her southern accent, instead, relies on her body language and facial expressions, her air of mystique is the most enticing feature entraps audience even in the film's banalest moment.

    Winning over the likes of BOYHOOD (2014, 8/10) and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014, 8/10) in Berlin inevitably becomes an over-achievement for this intense crime-thriller, but put it among its Chinese peers of the same year, the film can excel most of them hands down, as one of the must-see from the over-ballooning market where ingrainedly burdened with shoddy soil damages its own commodities.
    helpful•6
    6
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Apr 1, 2015

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 21, 2014 (China)
    • Country of origin
      • China
    • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Language
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • İnce Buz, Kara Kömür
    • Production companies
      • Omnijoi Media
      • Boneyard Entertainment China
      • China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $16,830,885
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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