Suzhou River: LOU Ye’s film has, in a sense, a noir sensibility, as it deals with minor crooks at the underbelly of society (in this case, modern-day Shanghai); however, it tells a love story. The film looks into two romances, of two men with (perhaps) the same woman. The story is interesting and to the point. The film is made more engaging by its visual style; one of the would-be lovers is a videographer, so the camera for that part of the film is subjective. The other half of the film is more objective, but still beautiful and intimate handheld; it is great work by cinematographer WANG Yu, well complemented by editor Karl Riedl. ZHOU Xun plays both women (or versions of the same woman?) very enticingly, one of them naïve, the other aggressively seductive. JIA Hongsheng plays well enough one of her would-be lovers, while ZHANG Ming Fong is the film’s narrator as the videographer, a solid vocal performance. Composer Jörg Lemberg’s musical score is quite interesting and a fine match to the material.