Suzhou River

Set in present-day Shanghai, Suzhou River follows Mardar, a small-time courier who knows the city well and keeps his work simple by asking no questions. Hired to drive the teenage daughter of a wealthy smuggler, he falls for her, but a kidnapping scheme involving his criminal friends goes wrong, and the girl disappears into the river. Mardar goes to prison for his part in it. After his release, he meets Meimei, a nightclub performer who bears an uncanny resemblance to the woman he lost, and he becomes convinced she is the same person.

Lou Ye wrote and directed the film, his first feature, arriving before Summer Palace, Love and Bruises, The Shadow Play and An Unfinished Film. Zhou Xun plays both Meimei and Moudan, with Jia Hongsheng as Mardar. Philippe Bober and Nai An produced the German-Chinese co-production, which runs 83 minutes. On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.4 from 34 reviews, while on TMDB it has 7.3 from 187 votes, so professional and general audiences are closely aligned in their assessment.