THE DAY THE SUN TURNED COLD

"When Guan Jian tries to report a suspected murder, the police don't take him seriously. For one thing, the alleged crime happened a full ten years ago, and nobody has voiced doubts about the death before. For another, the alleged victim was Guan's father, and the person he's accusing of murder is his own mother.

Yim Ho's sober, engrossing and very moving film is based on an actual incident that hap­pened in China s North-East, but it is not an exercise in docu-drama. It is essential to Yim's purpose that the characters and situations should be socially and psychologically credible and so the film offers realistic accounts of life in Changchun and a Jilin village and the excellent cast (led by the matchless Siqin Gaowa as the mother) give strong naturalistic performances. The core of the film though is a love/hate rela­tionship between a mother and son, and Yim is just as sensitive to its emotional nuances as he is alert to the transgressions of orthodox moral­ity. The real issue-the real challenge of the film-is not whether or not a woman killed a man ten years ago, but whether her son is right to accuse her in public"