Only the River Flows

1990s, town of Banpo, rural China. The body of a woman is found by the river. Ma Zhe, head of the criminal police, leads the murder investigation, which results in an obvious arrest. His superiors are quick to congratulate him, but several clues lead Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the hidden behaviors of his fellow citizens. If Only the River Flows, with its dark, rainy images and cigarette-smoking detective, evokes a typically stylized neo-noir, its repeated subversions of the genre lend a postmodern touch to this thriller that is both breathless and reflective.