THE JOURNEY OF MURDER (CHINA)

evoke warmth in people's hearts. The unique film aesthetics, exquisite camera language, and poetic expression are the perfect fusion of experiential realism and transcendental poetry.

Jun Wang 's The Journey of Murder also received lots of praise at the film festivals. In April 2020, the film won the Best Non-European Independent Drama Feature Award at the European Independent Film Festival, and in May 2021, it won the Best Foreign Film Award at the 21st Beverly Hills Film Festival. And won the Brooklyn Film Festival Award for Best Original Score. A total of 16 awards, including Best Picture, Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Photography, and more than 20 nominated awards

Jun Wang chains us by the hand to take us on this surreal socio-geographical odyssey across China to uncover its grittiest, most remote, and rundown provinces, whilst also its underground criminal world of human trafficking; in this instance, the wife selling-purchasing for ghost marriage. Jun Wang makes a "mental girl," and his "husband kidnapper" endearingly undramatic character, Sha Tao's burden-free childlike innocence and Ma Saike's ironically sluggish problem gambler make a bewitching duo to watch at the hands of Feifei Yu and Zhen Liu. this story manages to convey that sense of anguish through what I dare say is the performance of the year from the brilliant Feifei Yu. But the best thing about this story is that not only does it have a good account and brilliant performances, but it also exhibits a rare masterclass in directing given, the talented Jun Wang; who gives us with each scene a delicate hand-painted picture where everything we see is placed in a certain way to transmit at each moment what he is looking for. The Journey of Murder's repleted with avant-garde minutiae, from phantasmagorical dream sequences (get ready for that dance scene!) to surrealist cinematic compositions and exquisite overall auteur archaeology—a final climatic long take will see Sha Tao's tic go away at the glance that she's no longer anyone's property, horror and hysteria deepen in her eyes, whilst a profound socio-cultural critique and philosophical commentary creep into our psyche.