The director of the acclaimed Black Coal, Thin Ice returns with his latest from Cannes competition, a densely layered neo-noir set in the Chinese underworld.

Reimagining the film noir for the seedy underbelly of China’s “second-tier” suburbs, acclaimed auteur Diao Yi'nan (Night Train, MIFF 2008; Uniform, MIFF 2004) returns with the follow up to his Berlin-winning hit Black Coal, Thin Ice (MIFF 2014), plunging the audience back into the treacherous, dimly lit terrain of his nation’s modern gangland.

Gangster Zhou (Chinese television star Ge Hu) is on the run from police when he connects with sex worker Liu Aiai (Black Coal, Thin Ice’s femme fatale Lun-Mei Kwei), who has instructions to bring him in. While Zhou’s underworld flashbacks reveal his predicament, the pair is hunted along the shores of the titular lake, and Diao weaves his intricate tapestry of criminal double-crosses and brilliantly orchestrated violence – you may never look at an umbrella the same way again.

“Diao Yi'nan delivers a definitive Chinese crime noir, in which the ravishing style and inventive staging form the substance.” – Variety

Contains sexual violence