The Wild Goose Lake (Nanfang chezhan de juhui)

 A series of escalating petty rivalries within a motorbike-stealing cartel result in Zhou Zenong (Hu Ge) shooting a cop to death. The police mobilize en masse and track him down to Wild Goose Lake, a remote lakeside community where crime runs rampant.

 When the police offer 300000 yuan to anyone who turns Zhou in, he hatches a plan with a couple of close associates to be "handed in" for the reward money - he's got no illusions that the police (which the movie frames in parallel with the criminals several times) will let him live, so he might as well leave his estranged wife some money after he's gone. But because everyone involved has a criminal record, they have to enlist the help of Liu Aiai (Gwei Lun-mei), a 'bathing beauty' - a sex worker who makes a living from lakeside tourists to act as the informant.

 Meanwhile, the asshole who stirred the shit that got Zhou into the whole sorry mess is still around, with eyes on the reward as well. As for everyone else, that amount of money might give people ideas... maybe shift some loyalties.

 The plot is loose, even a little disjointed, and it leaves a lot open for the viewer to interpret. Writer/director Diao Yinan doesn't really neglect the twisty, pulpy plot, nor the expected lurid action. But his attention wanders easily, and the meticulously composed scenes often follow its characters while they go on with their lives without doing anything that might impact the story - if it wasn't so carefully crafted, it'd look heavily improvised.

 It's wryly funny as well - there aren't any real jokes in the script, but Yinan has a real appreciation for the ridiculous. The most over the top example is an unorthodox (and very bloody) use Zhou finds for an umbrella, but there are a few minor sight gags, humorous (at least to me) abrupt cuts and surreal tableaus. Elsewhere the script bogs down (in an enjoyable way) to show, say, some of the finer points of motorcycle stealing (in a scene that reminded me, not for the last time in the movie, of Emily the Criminal), or an improvised disco night where the dancers, for lack of a light-up floor, wear light-up shoes.

 The film is structured as a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards as the various characters and the police circle around each other warily. There's next to no exposition, and none of the main characters are very expressive; You're expected to keep up with all the various factions (or not).

 This complexity does give the film a jittery, paranoid vibe. The suspense tips over into violence several times over; Short bursts only (don't expect complicated choreographies or extended shootouts), but what's there is enjoyable and doesn't shy away from getting a little silly.
 More than anything else, it's an exercise in mood-setting, with almost every languid, morose scene dripping with neo-noir atmosphere (cinematographer: Dong Jinsong).

 I'm not that convinced of its substance, but with this much style, it's a moot point. It requires some patience, but I liked it a lot.