Really good film

An excellent drama situated in the snow and ice of Northern China and one of its industrial towns. The plot is fairly simple but has some intricacies because of the motivations of the characters. Two lives intersect when a police officer quits the force after a tragedy during which two of his colleagues are shot dead and he is wounded. This was a really excellent scene, one of my favourites. Just before he leaves the force his team begin investigating a strange case, a murder, where the victim's body parts are found across Northern China on the same day. This perplexity - how could the discoveries occur at the same time across such a wide area - is one of the clues that leads to resolution of the murder.

Having quit the force this case returns to haunt him when one of his former colleagues allows him to overhear a debrief of two subsequent murders that fit a similar profile. Drawn by intrigue the ex-cop begins investigating the common link amongst the three cases: The widow of the first victim.

Ex-cop and widow engage in lots of game playing; he's attracted to her and she's trying to repulse him. Amidst all of this is the ice, the snow, skating, night darkness and sexual politics. It's a visually impressive affair and I was sucked into the lifestyle and food (!) of the town. I would have rated this more highly but for the fact that I found the characters, especially the ex-cop, somewhat inscrutable. There were some jump moments for me during very realistic shooting and murder scenes. The film features an early scene involving the cop, before he leaves the force, and his divorced wife, where they have sex. Little is seen and the sex is implied but it was a very erotic moment.

The ending was fantastic and very funny as well as rather sad.

A well deserved 8/10 from me.

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.