At the forefront of China’s "Sixth Generation," director Lou Ye blends the influences of American and European directors (comparisons are often drawn between Suzhou River and Hitchcock’s Vertigo) to create a highly original visual and narrative style. The film is told from the viewpoint of a lonely videographer who studies the human traffic that passes through the streets below his balcony. He meets Meimei, a mysterious nightclub performer with a mermaid act, and falls in love. In a parallel narrative, Marda, a motorcycle courier, recounts the story of his lost love, a free spirit who disappeared into the Suzhou River but whom he now believes to have survived in the form of Memei. Filled with arresting imagery and uncanny shifts of emotion, Suzhou River is as much a journey through a paradoxical and harsh Shanghai as through the complexities of modern relationships.

Michael is the son of a wealthy Hong Kong businessman who is sent to Beijing by his father to practice the Mandarin language. An aspiring singer-songwriter, he meets a struggling Beijing punk band and becomes friends with the band’s leader and his go-go dancing girlfriend—a beautiful and spirited figure with whom he falls in love as he accompanies the group on tour. With a visual style that oscillates between realism and MTV, Cheung presents a road movie that explores the emotional depth beneath the characters’ hard-rock exteriors. Complementing the music track is striking cinematography by Oscar-winning cameraman Peter Pau, responsible for the startling imagery of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.