Invisible Killer

Derek ELLEY is Senior Film Critic of the U.S.-based entertainment trade paper "Variety," which has been covering the international film business for over 100 years. Born in London, Elley has been writing about East Asian cinema for over 35 years, especially Chinese-language films, and has arranged numerous seasons both in the U.K. and elsewhere. In 1998, he co-founded the Far East Film Festival, in Udine, Italy, devoted to mainstream Asian movies. He has been visiting China regularly, both for business and pleasure, for over 20 years.

A cautionary tale of the internet\'s potential for misuse receives an offbeat framing in “Invisible Killer”, which uses a police-procedural format to involving effect. Strongly etched characters compensate for the almost total lack of physical action as the central mystery unfolds via flashbacks, making this a contender for some fest sidebar play and cable pickup. After his emotionally involving, multi-character ensembler, “The End of Year”, this third feature by 40-something helmer Wang Jing establishes him as another middle-generation mainland Chinese talent hardly known offshore.

Wang has been here before, in his 2004 debut feature, “The Last Level”, based on a true story of a guy who died after spending 60 days non-stop in an internet cafe. However, “Killer”, also inspired by real life, is stylistically different from both the part-fantasy “Level” and semi-docu-like “Year”, with immaculately composed visuals sketching smalltown life on a small island near Ningbo, just south of Shanghai.

The only regular action occurs in a tense opening as the local vice squad, led by hard-assed femme cop Zhang Yao (Feng Bo, good), busts some crooks in a hotel. Thinking he\'s also involved with them, the cops also arrest a guy leaving an adjoining room. After some detective work, Zhang and her colleagues (Yu Linda, Gao Xin) identify him as Gao Fei (Yin Xiaotian), who\'s been dubbed a “fugitive” on the internet.
First act crosscuts between those events and two guys—— internet journalist Xu Wei (Xie Yanxiao) and a colleague, Zhou Qiang (Cao Wei)——who are trying to track down the whereabouts of Gao. Turns out the married Gao was accused online of sleeping with Lin Yan (Tang Yan), whom he\'d met at a netizen association, by her irate husband, businessman Cheng Tao (Li Yixiang). Pilloried on the net and his family abused, Gao had fled to Beijing but is now secretly back in town.

The cops let Gao go. But when Lin\'s headless body is swept ashore soon afterwards, Zhang launches a full investigation. Full story gradually emerges in flashbacks triggered by the interviews.

Script, co-written by producer Xie Xiaodong (who also co-penned “Year”), isn\'t directly preachy about internet misuse but also doesn\'t build to a solution quite worthy of the tangled lead-up. Still, there are plenty of opportunities for the well-chosen cast to get their teeth into their characters, led by Feng as the hard-assed cop (whose role would have benefited by some boosting), Yin as the slyly deceptive Gao and Tang as his pretty mistress.

Wang\'s helming keeps the atmosphere gently simmering beneath the outwardly quiet, coastal setting, aided by regular collabs Li Ran\'s beautifully composed lensing and Feng Wen\'s economic cutting.