A young cargo ship captain named Gao Chun pilots his boat up the Yangtze River and ponders the recent death of his father. During the trip, he encounters numerous symbols representing China's past, present and future, including a mysterious woman who is present at every port along the way.
Crosscurrent became one heck of a water divider (no pun intended) after its release, where one side praised the arthouse approach to a slow ride along the Yangtze river, and the other half didn't have the patience for what it wanted to show. I've read that this film was 10 years in the making, and while I don't know how much of that time was spent on shooting or writing, I'd say it was worth it. For me personally, Crosscurrent was an absolute shattering experience, and after some time I was swept away by Gao Chun's ambition to see the end of this seemingly never-ending, awe-inspiring river.
To help portray the most breathtaking parts of China's nature and locales around the river, director Chao Yang had the help of Mark Lee Ping-bing who's responsible for the beautiful cinematography in Norwegian Wood (2010) and In the Mood for Love (2000), and it's obvious early on that the both lush nature and the eerie and empty ghost cities along the river are meant to be main characters of their own. The story can be seen as both minimalistic and hard to grasp with all the Buddhistic views on life and death, alongside the personal journey of a man dealing with the passing of his father while also bumping into a woman during his long voyage. It is all capped off with one of the darkest and most atmospheric cello-based soundtracks I've ever heard, where the orchestral strength reaches new heights with the help of melancholic, dark waves. This is a score worthy of a billion-dollar movie, but instead hides away in this rarely talked about film about a man going up the Yangtze river. An amazing film, which I'm sad to see being swept aside by other more accessible ones, but at least it's out there and showing what cinema can be at it finest moments, an unforgettable journey.
Genre: Drama
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