When I searched online for ‘best cinemas Beijing’, Broadway Cinematheque MOMA (BC MOMA) appeared in the results and I’m very glad it did because it’s a wonderful place.
Set in a futuristic cityscape plaza towered over by apartment blocks linked high up by aerial walkways, the cinema itself is an architectural statement of intent, a radical design befitting the arthouse ethos.
I was here to see a newly released Chinese film, ‘A Cool Fish’ (‘Wu ming zhi bei’).
Many thanks to Songyan for booking the tickets and to Shawn for coming along with me to see the film.
Directed by Xiaozhi Rao and with a cast featuring Jianbing Chen, Suxi Ren and Binlong Pan, ‘A Cool Fish’ has been categorised as a comedy on IMDB but I wouldn’t label it as such.
Though it does indeed contain plenty of humour, it also has an emotional depth and pathos that lift it well above the level of a comedy caper.
A thread of sadness runs through this beguiling film, with moments of great sensitivity punctuating the action scenes.
The English subtitles were pleasingly pithy and made the dialogue vivid even for non-Chinese speakers like myself.
The boisterous music in the soundtrack perfectly complements the on-screen action and also sets off well the southern Chinese city where ‘A Cool Fish’ was filmed.
A more reflective mood is struck late on in the film when one of the two robbers places earphones onto the ears of their captive and a beautiful, soulful song plays.
By the time ‘A Cool Fish’ finished, it was dark outside.
The plaza looked even better after dark than it did during daylight. Now there were lights on in the surrounding tower blocks and elegant reflections of light in the water feature pools adjacent to the cinema.
A magical corner in the heart of Beijing.
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