DIRECTOR/SCREENPLAY: Diao Yinan
PRODUCER: Li Li
PRODUCTION CO: Green Ray Films
PHOTOGRAPHY: Dong Jin Song
EDITORS: Kong Jinlei, Matthieu Laclau
MUSIC: B6
WITH: Hu Ge (Zhou Zenong), Gwei Lun-mei (Liu Aiai), Liao Fan (Captain Liu), Wan Qian (Yang Shujun), Qi Dao (Hua Hua), Huang Jue (Yan Ge), Chloe Maayan (Ping Ping), Zhang Yicong (Xiao Dongbei) ​

​FESTIVALS: Cannes, Toronto, New York

REVIEW

“Director of the terrific, Berlinale-winning police procedural Black Coal, Thin Ice, China’s Diao Yinan wowed Cannes with this superlative film noir. Stacked with some of the most uniquely thrilling sequences you’ll see in a cinema this year, his lauded follow-up centres on a rogue gangster (Hu Ge) who’s wanted by the cops and the mob – and the opportunistic prostitute (Gwei Lun Mei) who may or may not give him up for the sizable bounty on his head.

“Diao… cements his status as a master filmmaker with another ingenious crime epic… The Wild Goose Lake is [an] assured, exhilarating tale of criminality and the havoc it wreaks on interpersonal connection, with everything impressive about its predecessor – attentive procedural detail, curious experiments with colour and shadow, action set pieces that’d make Michael Mann envious – raised to the Nth degree.
​
There’s not a single false step in its two hours; every edit, every shot setup, every movement of the camera maximises the raw cinematic effect. There’s power in Diao’s more subdued passages, but when he really lets loose and the fists (or bullets, or strategically concealed booby-traps) start flying, this film’s greatness transforms from the kind that sneaks up on you to the kind that blows you away.”

— Charles Bramesco, Little White Lies

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Hamilton   
Monday, 27 February, 6.30pm

​Canterbury   
Monday, 06 March, 7.00pm

​Palmerston North   
Wednesday, 05 April, 6.00pm

Whanganui
Monday, 01 May, 7.00pm

Queenstown
Tuesday, 30 May, 8.15pm

Timaru
Tuesday, 13 June, 6.00pm

Wellington   
Monday, 26 June, 6:15pm

Bigger Picture Ōamaru  
Thursday, 14 September, 7.00pm

Auckland   
Monday, 02 October, 6.15pm

​​​Dunedin   
Wednesday, 22 November, 7.30pm

Carterton
Friday, 15 December, 7.00pm

Celebrate CONTEMPORARY CINEMA >>