The River of Fury
怒水西流
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.
Director: Feng Yongqin 冯勇沁.
Rating: 7/10.
Elaborate whodunit, set across 17 years, is richly though not starrily cast and sustained by a clever script that’s an exercise in misdirection.
STORY
Jiangcheng city, somewhere in central China, summer 1998. The body of a woman, Li Yuan, is discovered raped and murdered, the fourth such case this summer. The river that runs through the city recently flooded and, though the water level has gone down, the public is warned to still stay away from the banks. A group of female workers at the local steel mill arrive on Chenzhou island to do volunteer digging and is warned by two policemen there to be careful of strangers. The younger policeman is Feng Taishan (Yang Junjie). During a total solar eclipse that day, one of the women, Jiang Chunmei (Zhang Zhongli), 31, is murdered in the rushes. She is the fifth, and final, victim that summer. Seventeen years later, in 2015, a young veterinarian, Yu Na (Chen Duling), is abducted on her way home at night. Soon afterwards a large plastic bag is found floating in the river, but its contents turn out to be a dead pig. However, Feng Taishan (Ning Li), now a detective, discovers a package inside the pig containing a red plastic brooch shaped like an ear and a newspaper clipping of the 1998 murder of Jiang Chunmei. Veteran police chief Xia Mingwu (Ma Shuliang) explains to his staff how all the victims in 1998 – which was dubbed the Vicious Demon Case 恶鬼案 – had their ears cut off and stuffed inside animals. After the fifth victim, the murders suddenly stopped. At his request, Feng Taishan is assigned this latest case. On a list of missing persons, Feng Taishan finds the name of Yu Na, whose disappearance had been promptly reported by her boyfriend, Zhang Xiaowei (Duan Bowen), who works at his family-owned Huifu pig farm for which Yu Na was also the veterinarian. Feng Taishan questions Zhang Xiaowei and both Feng Taishan and his sidekick, Huang Xin (Li Chunyuan), think the introverted young man has something to hide. They later search Yu Na’s flat and a hair found in the pig package turns out to be hers. They then visit Huifu pig farm and meet Zhang Xiaohui’s widowed mother, Yan Huiru (Liu Mintao), his elder sister Zhang Xiaojuan (Lv Xiaolin) and elder brother Zhang Xiaojun (Wang Xun), who appears somewhat mentally impaired and also wears a hearing aid. Meanwhile, Yu Na is being held captive by a masked and cloaked figure. In two days’ time the city is to have its second release of flood water this year, and the public has been advised to stay clear of the river’s banks. Another black bag is found in the river, with the same contents. Feng Taishan and Huang Xin start following Zhang Xiaowei, who visits Yu Na’s spacey grandmother, Hu Yufang (Liu Delun), in hospital. When arrested by Feng Taishan, Zhang Xiaowei claims he’s simply looking for his girlfriend. Yu Na’s abductor hangs her by the riverside along with a suicide note, but Feng Taishan is convinced Yu Na was murdered. However, Zhang Xiaowei is still in police custody, so he cannot be the murderer. Stymied, Feng Taishan and Huang Xin revisit the 1998 case in detail. And then they get a lucky break from one of the female steel workers – now running a restaurant – who was on the scene when Jiang Chunmei was murdered.
REVIEW
An unsolved serial-murder case comes back to haunt a city 17 years later in The River of Fury 怒水西流, an elaborate whodunit that finally stretches credibility but provides some characterful drama along the way. It’s a first feature written and directed by Feng Yongqin 冯勇沁, a graduate of Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama. Shot in Chongqing, central China, back in the summer of 2018 – as the first production in a new directors’ support plan initiated by actor Huang Bo 黄渤 – it was eventually certified for release in late 2023 and then, after almost seven years, finally made its way to Mainland screens in March this year, taking RMB48.5 million, an okay amount for a modestly budgeted, semi-arty China Noir.
Though actually made several years earlier, River is in much the same vein as other criminal noirs like Only the River Flows 河边的错误 (2023) and Records without Words 沉默笔录 (2023), and in terms of quality is up there with the latter. Atmosphere and psychology are as important in these China Noirs as the sheer detection, and River has plenty of everything, from the clammy heat of a central China summer courtesy d.p. Feng Simu 冯思慕 (Lie Detector 测谎人, 2021; The Last Frenzy 末路狂花钱, 2024) and composers Yin Jie 尹杰 and Tian Liang 田亮 (All Suspects 全员嫌疑人, 2024), through the eager-to-prove chief detective and the shady lineup of suspects, to the twisty plot that’s a cleverly constructed exercise in misdirection.
The opening minutes sketch the latest in a series of murders of women during the summer of 1998 in the fictional city of Jiangcheng. Post-main title, the action switches to 2015, when a dead pig is found floating in the river and some materials inside it recall the earlier serial murders. Is the recent disappearance of a young female veterinarian linked to the five unsolved serial murders of 17 years ago? A detective who was a young policeman at the time asks to be put in charge of the case, and he’s joined by a rookie female detective as his sidekick. They question the missing woman’s boyfriend – part of a tightly-knit family that owns a pig farm – and think he’s hiding something; but when the missing woman is found hanged by the river, in a murder made to look like suicide, the police can’t pin it on her boyfriend as he’s been in custody the whole time.
Whodunit fans may spot a clue around the 35-minute mark that points to the real villain; but it’s not until halfway through the film that this person is revealed. And then, while that person is being questioned at police HQ, another woman is murdered and found (like all the others) with her ears cut off. Unlike many Chinese whodunits, the script of River doesn’t run out of puff in the second half; in fact, it increases its game of misdirecting the audience – to a point where, by the end, the final details of who did what to whom does stretch credibility.
Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining ride, led by the nice repartee between the eccentric detective (spacey Ning Li 宁理, better known for his TV work) and his not-so-stupid assistant (perky Li Chunyuan 李春媛) and backgrounded by a rich cast of characters, including comedian Wang Xun 王迅 (the biggest name in the cast) playing it straight as a very suspicious member of the pig-breeding family, Duan Bowen 段博文 as the kidnapped woman’s boyfriend, and veteran Liu Mintao 刘敏涛 (playing older than the 42 she was at the time) as the family matriarch. As the kidnappee, Chen Duling 陈都灵 (The Left Ear 左耳, 2015) is okay in an extended guest appearance.
The release of floodwater in the river that flows through the fictional town is referred to several times in the script but actually plays no part in the plot. Adding further confusion, the film’s Chinese title (literally, “Angry Water Flows West”) is a pointless pun on that of the (unrelated) 1940s classic drama The Spring River Flows East 一江春水向东流 (aka Tears of the Yangtze, 1947).
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Hanna Pictures (CN), Shanghai Sova Entertainment (CN). Produced by Shanghai Sova Entertainment (CN).
Script: Feng Yongqin. Photography: Feng Simu. Editing: Zhang Jiahui. Music: Yin Jie, Tian Liang. Art direction: Lan Zhiqiang. Styling: Kong Lingyuan. Sound: Ma Junchang, Yin Jie. Action: Guo Yong, Shi Zhanbiao. Visual effects: Dong Mingxing. Executive direction: Zhang Kaiqiang.
Cast: Ning Li (Feng Taishan), Wang Xun (Zhang Xiaojun), Liu Mintao (Yan Huiru), Duan Bowen (Zhang Xiaowei), Li Chunyuan (Huang Xin), Lv Xiaolin (Zhang Xiaojuan), Chen Duling (Yu Na), Ma Shuliang (Xia Mingwu, police chief), Kuang Muye (Xiaoliu, forensics officer), He Yunwei (prisoner), Peng Bo (patient), Yu Yao (young Zhang Xiaowei), Liu Xue (old policeman, 1998), Zhang Zhongli (Jiang Chunmei, fifth victim, 1998), Li Jianli (nurse), Liu Delun (Hu Yufang, Yu Na’s grandmother), Yang Junjie (younger Feng Taishan).
Release: China, 22 Mar 2025.