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.