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Shanghai: The videographer and Meimei (Zhou Xun), who performs a
show as a mermaid at a local club, are lovers. But Meimei constantly asks
him if, should she disappear, he would go looking for her forever, like
Mardar looked for Moudan. The videographer says yes, but she doesn't
believe him.
Quite regularly, Meimei would disappear for several days, during which
the videographer's life feels empty ... so, out of boredom, he makes up
his own story about Mardar and Moudan:
Mardar (Jia Hongshen) is a motorbike courier, and one of his jobs is to
bring Moudan (also Zhou Xun) to her aunt while her (widowed) father bangs
a new girlfriend. Somehow, Mardar and Moudan fall in love, and soon he
doesn't bring her to her aunt no more, instead they spend the time
together.
Unfortunately, Mardar's boss and ex-lover is a gangster, and eventually
she has the bright idea to kidnap Moudan and hold her for ransom ... and
Mardar is to do the kidnapping and holding - which puts a strain on their
relationship to say the least.
Ultimately, Moudan's father pays up, but Mardar's boss is killed by her
partner for the money, and once Mardar is to bring Moudan back, she runs
away and throws herself into Suzhou River ... to her death, maybe, but her
corpse is never found, instead a legend of a mermaid arises. Mardar on the
other hand is arrested for kidnapping and spends the next 3 years in jail.
Once out of prison, Mardar roams Shanghai looking for Moudan, but he
doesn't succeed in finding her ... until he sees a mermaid-show at a local
bar, and the mermaid is - you guessed it - Meimei, a splitting image of
Moudan. Mardar is convinced he has found his love and tries to win her
back, problem is, Meimei claims she is not Moudan and at first wants to
get rid of Mardar ... but soon she starts to find the romantic young man
attractive and by and by lets him into her life, and eventually her bed,
much to the dismay of the videographer, who eventually has Mardar beaten
up.
In a turn of events, Mardar realizes that Meimei is not Moudan after
all, apologizes to the videographer and takes off, only to find the real
Moudan working as a clerk in a 24 hours store. The two of them party, get
drunk - and ultimately die in an accident when Mardar drives his motorbike
into Suzhou River right where Moudan jumped in 3 years ago.
When Meimei sees the two bodies, she is heartbroken, because she
thought Mardar was only making up Moudan to get involved with her ...
Once again, she asks the videographer if, should she ever disappear, he
would go looking for her for ever, just like Mardar. Once again, the
videographer says yes, but when she's gone for good the next day, he can't
be bothered, as all good things come to an end ...
In writing, this film must sound rather clichéd and cheesy, but as a
film, Suzhou River is anything but, it's a totally new and fresh
blend of romance and crime thriller, a masterpiece in understatement,
filmed primarily using a shaky handcamera that often seems to lose itself
in seemingly unimportant details and that shows Shanghai and especially
the Suzhou River in all its dirt and filthiness - yet comes across as a
declaration of love to the city and the river. Absolutely stunning, a
must-see.
By the way, critics often quote Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as
one of the main influences for Suzhou River, yet apart from the
doppelganger-motif, the two films have little in common - which proves, if
anything, the narrow-mindedness of some critics.
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amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Suzhou River at adultvideouniverse.com
