Berlin Film Festival Winner “Black Coal, Thin Ice” to Set off Fireworks on March 21

Detective romance film, Black Coal, Thin Ice <白日焰火>, which won the highest award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, recently released its latest trailer. The movie, which stars mainland Chinese actor Liao Fan (廖凡) and Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun Mei (桂綸鎂), is slated to open in theaters on March 21.
Black Coal, Thin Ice is the story of laundromat worker Wu Zhizhen (Gwei Lun Mei), whose husband (Wang Xuebing 王學兵) was killed and dismembered five years ago. Now a series of similarly grisly murder cases have cropped up, and the dismembered victims all have one thing in common: each one is an ex-boyfriend of Zhizhen.
In order to uncover the truth, police officer Zhang Zili (Liao Fan) volunteers to get close to Zhizhen, even though he had previously been injured when dealing with her husband’s case five years prior. But as he grows close to her, they fall in love and must wrestle with the truth of the crime together.
Despite being director Diao Yinan’s (刁亦男) third feature film and his first directing endeavor in seven years, Black Coal, Thin Ice won critical acclaim at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, where it snagged the prestigious Golden Bear Award, given to the best film of the year. The last time a mainland Chinese film won the Golden Bear was in 2007, with the film Tuya’s Marriage <圖雅的婚事>.
Liao Fan also picked up the Silver Bear for Best Actor, making him the first mainland Chinese actor to win the award. During his acceptance speech, he thanked his costar Gwei Lun Mei for “igniting that group of fireworks and giving warmth to that winter.”
The film’s Chinese title, which translates to “Daytime Fireworks,” is a testament to the greatest miracles in life, according to the director. To him, one must be extremely determined to set off fireworks during the daytime. As a result, these fireworks may be more beautiful than those seen at night, and thus be more filled with hope, warmth, and recovery.