Cliff Walkers

Snow. Four people jump from a plane and come down in a Manchurian forest. They were trained in the Soviet Union and their task is set: an operation called Utrennya. They are to get out of the country the one witness who managed to escape from a camp under Japanese occupation. The four split into two. But the other side knows the mission; they have been informed on and there are men waiting at the landing. Now it is unclear which contact is real and which a trap. One of them is working inside the enemy ranks and trying to save the others. Zhang Yimou directs. Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, Qin Hailu, Zhu Yawen, Liu Haocun and Ni Ni are in the cast. It is a Chinese production. It is set in Manchukuo under Japanese control in the thirties. This is Zhang Yimou's first spy film. It was shot in real winter in northeastern China and the snowbound exteriors were not built in a studio. The photography looks as though it uses no colour; there is almost nothing outside white, black and red. The matter it treats is mistrust; the spy narrative here is not a puzzle but a state in which who knows what keeps changing. The narrative spends no time introducing the characters and the names go by fast. The film opened in China over the May Day holiday. Its limit is following it; the narrative moves before you know who is who and the first half hour is confusing. Who it is for: viewers who like spy films and Zhang Yimou's visual work. Who it is not for: it is confusing, the characters thin, and the ending merciless.