The Wild Goose Lake

Gwei Lun-Mei and Ge Hu share a spark in The Wild Goose Lake

Certainly the most accomplished and interesting new feature I've seen in 2020, The Wild Goose Lake  fulfills the promise director Yi'nan Diao showed in his earlier features.  Set mostly at night amongst the lakeside demimonde of Wuhan and told largely in flashback, the film has been described as a Hitchcockian noir, but I found it more akin to the man on the run films of Carol Reed, particularly Odd Man Out and The Third Man. Like those films, The Wild Goose Lake features a doomed protagonist, played with Steve McQueen like dexterity and taciturnity by Ge Hu, who is sought by both the authorities and the mob. He wants to turn himself in and give the reward money to his somewhat less than faithful wife, but danger lurks for him around every corner. The mood of the film is fatalistic and paranoid. All of the main characters are being stalked or surveilled. A prostitute tries to help Ge Hu's character, but his fate is sealed and he knows it. The principles are all outstanding, but the pool halls, flesh pits and noodle shops of Wuhan come equally alive in this memorable and moody thriller.