Du Qingchun analyzes repressed desire in Diao Yinan's 2014 film Black Coal, Thin Ice

Du Qingchun's analysis of Diao Yinan's 2014 film Black Coal, Thin Ice examines themes of repressed desire and the portrayal of women in contemporary China. The film, which won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, follows detective Zhang Zili's investigation of murders surrounding laundry worker Wu Zhizhen. Gwei Lun-Mei portrays Wu, while Liao Fan plays Zhang, a disgraced former policeman seeking redemption. Wang Xuebing appears as Wu's husband, Liang Zhijun. Du argues the film's marketing as a love story is misleading, noting instead its focus on sexual repression and male fantasy. Key scenes include Zhang launching daytime fireworks and a rendezvous on a frozen lake where Wu becomes the object of multiple men's desires. The analysis highlights how fragmentary images—like an obese bystander, a horse crossing a street, and scenes from the 1986 film Lucky 13—intensify the atmosphere of repression. Set in a Northeast China city, the film uses its industrial landscape to visualize emotional sterility. Du's critique, originally published in ArtReview Asia's Autumn & Winter 2015 issue and translated by Daniel Nieh, positions the work as a lament for China's recent past rather than a conventional crime drama.