ONLY THE RIVER FLOWS

While the film excels in mood, Chinese murder mystery Only the River Flows is enigmatic to a fault and strands somewhere between a traditional dark thriller and a David Lynch fever dream.

Talking to friends about this film after watching it, I kept referring to the picture as Only the River Knows, instead of its actual title, which is no coincidence. To some extent my bastardisation is a better fit, as memory – and the way it is shaped and altered in our minds based on experiences – is the movie’s recurring motif.

When the lead character, chief inspector Ma Zhe, starts out investigating a local murder he sees it as a routine job, but as the plot muddles, motives remain elusive and more bodies pile up, his obsession with finding method in the murderer’s madness have a detrimental effect on his own mental state, until neither he nor the viewer can separate the cold facts from the theories in his head anymore.

There is ambition in this approach, yet director Wei Shujun never fully exploits the possibilities. Whether it is the setting of a police station in an abandoned cinema, the subplot of a pregnancy that risks gping wrong or wading through water as a recurring visual metaphor, Only the River Flows brings plot and theme into close proximity but never truly marries them in a satisfactory, meaningful way.

While the picture is never boring, past the halfway point it starts grinding gears, relying on subtlety to convey deeper meaning yet resorting to clichéd depictions of dreamlike realities that intrigue but don’t go much further than that, despite an fine lead performance by Zhu Yilong.

Ultimately what lingers in the mind the most is the visual aesthetic of the film. The cinematography efficiently captures a grainy nineties mood that draws you into the story more than the plot, the performances or the overarching theme do. So while the moody visuals easily lift Only the River Flows out of mediocrity, I’m not too sure I can say the same about other elements of the film.

release: 2024

director: Wei Shujun

starring: Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Tianlai Hou, Tong Linkai