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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: September 29th, 2015.
Director: Diao Yinan
Cast: Fan Liao, Xuebing Wang
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Diao Yinan's Black Coal, Thin Ice starts off in the late nineties in the north of China where the recipients of a coal delivery are understandably shocked to find a severed hand packed in with the coal. As more shipments come into the area, more body parts are discovered and a cop named Zhang (Liao Fan) is tasked with trying to sort this out while dealing with the repercussions of his recent divorce. He and his partner Wang (Yu Ailei) head to a beauty salon to follow up on some leads and just as they're about to make an arrest, there's a bloody shootout. Not only does Zhang get hit, but two other officers are killed. The higher-ups are none too impressed with his efforts here and he's fired.
Cut to 2004 - Zhang has fallen pretty deep inside a bottle but manages to function enough to hold a job as a security guard, ironically enough, at a coal plant. Seemingly by chance, Wang happens to be in the area and when he and Zhang see each other, they catch up. It's then that Zhang is filled in on the details of the case that have transpired since he was let go. Unable to let it go, he starts poking his nose back into things and soon makes a connection to a beautiful widow named Wu Zhizhen (Gwei Lun Mei).
Black Coal, Thin Ice may deal quite heavily and obviously in film noir clichés, but at least it does it well. It doesn't look like Diao Yinan was going for originality here, but rather attempting to recreate a traditionally American style story of murder, deceit and an alluring femme fatale in his native land against an authentically Chinese backdrop. On this level, the movie is interesting. The industrial locations of Heilongjiang Province make for an appropriately bleak landscape in the same way that the locations in Fargo serviced that film by the Coen Brothers years back. Where a lot of Chinese films are rather preoccupied with showing off their country's more scenic locations, here Diao takes us into the heart of the industrial side of things and he sets his murder story against a backdrop of heavy snow and perpetual gloom. Interiors, however, are often bathed in shades of glowing neon that simultaneously conjure up a sort of retro look but also serve to create an interesting visual contrast to what things look like out of doors.
Neither Zhang nor Wu are particularly original characters - again the movie pulls heavily from noir stereotypes as he is the rundown hero with his own set of problems and she the obvious femme fatale - but Liao Fan and Gwei Lun Mei play their parts well. They make their characters at once believable enough to keep us 'in the moment' and interesting enough that we want to find out what happens to them. This helps during some slow spots in the middle stretch of the film where the pacing lags a bit but so too does it give the ending a bit more punch.
If you've seen enough film noir classics you'll be able to figure out where this one is going well before the characters in the movie are able to. This does take away from the picture's excitement, but what it lacks in originality it definitely makes up for with plenty of style, some interesting locations and some very fine acting.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is excellent. Detail is strong, colors are reproduced really nicely. The color scheme leans towards a lot of shadowy blacks in spots but then in other scenes it's quite bold and impressive. Thankfully the black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation and there aren't any problems with crush or compression. Generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.
The main audio option on the disc is a Chinese language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English. The lossless track here is a good one, though there isn't quite as much rear channel activity as you might expect. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie. An optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix is also included.
Extras are limited to a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Well Go USA properties, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Black Coal, Thin Ice is a rock solid crime thriller with some stylish noir overtones and a few decent twists and turns. There are times where the pacing slows things down more than you might want it to but stick with it, the payoff is worth it. Well Go USA's Blu-ray is light on extras but it does look and sound quite good. Fans of dramatic thrillers should give this one a shot.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
