9 February 2024.
By Neptune
THE BREAKING ICE (Un hiver à Yanji) *** (vo Mandarin/Korean)
In a blessed hour and a half, Singaporean director, Anthony Chen, takes us into China and gives us a glimpse of a remote corner of this immense country. This is not a travelogue, but rather a tender, modern tale of three young people in their 20s who momentarily bond in Yanji, a city in the icy, barren north-eastern part of China, on the border with North Korea.
Shy urbanite Haofeng is somewhat lost and lonely on a bus tour in that area, until he meets Nana, the exuberant tourist guide who takes him under her wing and introduces him to her friend Xiao. She feels at home and in charge of the two fellows, though she has her own quiet regrets. Xiao, who has always been around, loves her, but it’s the new Haofeng whom Nana takes into her bed.
She takes a few days off and the three become inseparable for the time they are together, getting drunk in discos, eating out in the cold, lifting books in a bookstore, just for the fun of it. They go on a trip to find a magic lake somewhere high in the mountains where they meet a bear. Strangely, it’s a both scary and emotional moment. This work has tinges of the French Nouvelle Vague of the 60s, yet it is completely of today.
That’s how Chen’s films are – gentle, contemplative, intrinsically informative about the places the characters inhabit, as though we are there with them, sharing their burdens and their joys. Just in the short span of the film, Chen gives us a true moment of a bit of Chinese life, and we feel gifted for it. His film was the Singaporean choice for the Foreign Oscars.
(Showing at the GRÜTLI Cinemas)
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.

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