Suzhou River

  • Friday, Sep 19, 2025

    7 PM (94 mins)
    BAMPFA

    SOLD OUT

A limited number of wheelchair accessible spaces may still be available for this screening. Please contact bampfa@berkeley.edu if you would like a ticket for a wheelchair accessible space.



Suzhou River

(Suzhou he)

Lou Ye
China, Germany, 2000

4K Digital Restoration

featuring

Zhou Xun, Jia Hongsheng, Nai An, Yao Anlian,

Lou Ye’s atmospheric noir thriller may be set in Shanghai circa 1999, but its ghosts—of lovers, criminals, and heartbroken dreamers—seem drawn from the glory years of 1930s Shanghai cinema. Along the city’s main artery—the rain-drenched, trash-filled Suzhou River—a videographer searches for a lost love; his tales of woe soon dovetail with another man’s and another lost love, and what begins as a romance turns into a thriller, and back again. Described as “Wong Kar-wai’s Vertigo” for its Hong Kong visual flair and Hitchcockian narrative trickery, Suzhou River is a city symphony dedicated to Shanghai’s eternal mysteries.

Jason Sanders_old

FILM DETAILS

Screenwriter

  • Lou Ye

Cinematographer

  • Wang Yu

Language

  • Mandarin
  • with English subtitles

Print Info

  • Color
  • DCP
  • 83 mins

Source

  • Strand Releasing

Preceded By

Boat to Shanghai

United States, 1930–33

From BAMPFA’s Culbertson Collection, a home movie collection, including images from Shanghai. 

FILM DETAILS

Print Info

  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 11 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

Additional Info

  • Presented with live piano accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg.

Event Accessibility

If you have any questions about accessibility or need accommodations to attend this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-1412 (Wed–Sun, 11 AM–7 PM) as soon as you can. Advance notice helps us fulfill your request.

Learn more about accessibility services at BAMPFA.