The Breaking Ice

Impressive coming-of-age drama with associations to both the French New Wave and Joachim Trier, from a China rarely seen in film.

One of the best films from this year's Un Certain Regard section at Cannes festival was undoubtedly Singaporean Anthony Chen's indie drama The Breaking Ice. The film is set in the city of Yanji, in eastern China, near the border with North Korea, and tells the story of three quite ordinary young people. Haofeng is originally a rich man's son from Shanghai who arrives in the city disillusioned, but when he gets to know the almost equally rootless Nana and Xiao, he slowly but surely manages to find meaning in life.

This is a rare narrative in Chinese cinema, and thoughts go to both Joachim Trier's Reprise and François Truffaut's Jules et Jim, when the three dance, drink, and discuss their way through life's small and large challenges. The powerful nature of the area almost acts as a character in itself, and eventually manages to subtly push into the lives of the three main characters.

«With a nod towards the seductive swing of the French New Wave, Anthony Chen creates an arresting portrait of three young people trapped within their own existential crises.»
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian –

Jon Sæter

Director

Anthony Chen (f. 1984) er en regissør og manusforfatter fra Singapore. Han har laget fem filmer, i tillegg til syv kortfilmer siden debuten i 2005. I 2013 mottok han debutregissør-prisen, Golden Camera, for sin langfilmdebut Ilo Ilo, under filmfestivalen i Cannes.