The Looming Storm - CinemAsia

Hunan Province, 1996. When bodies of young women are discovered in a small town, the police suspect that a serial killer is on the loose. With dreams of achieving greatness, Yu Guowei (Duan Yihong) – a security guard at a local state-run factory – decides to play detective, coercing his fellow-workers to join him. Yu believes that he’s getting closer to the truth, but his world is about to be wiped out by a wave of change sweeping China.

The Looming Storm has garnered illustrious awards, notably Artistic Contribution Award and Best Actor at Tokyo Film Festival, Best New Director at Asian Film Awards and 6 Golden Horse nominations. Dong Yue’s atmospheric, nail-biting thriller may be reminiscent of Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, but it also encapsulates Chinese history at a defining moment, when the state-run economy shifts to a new era of capitalist-socialism. Duan Yihong is electrifying as a nobody whose obsession causes him to lose his grip on humanity and sanity