This has a plot that's pretty easy to describe. Ma Shan is a police officer in a remote province of China. When he wakes up on the morning following his sister’s wedding, he discovers his gun is missing. On the way to look for it he learns many details of the night before, but can’t find the gun.

Then the gun is found to have killed a woman, a woman he was close to many years before. Suddenly Ma Shan is in a race against time to find the gun and prove his innocence before he is blamed for the crime.

And that’s it.

The film is practically divided half-and-half down the middle; the first half is a comedy, the second a dramatic mystery, but both add up to a watchable film with some very beautiful scenery along the way. Set in a remote region of China, there are naturally plenty of mountainous hillsides and green valleys and ancient decaying buildings. These make the film almost mystical in its approach and help lend an air of surreality to the setting, and the proceedings.

It’s certainly different and not quite what we’ve come to grow used to from Chinese cinema, but is still well worth having a look at should you be after something foreign with a fairly simple storyline.

Picture quality is pretty good here with only minor film artefacts making their presence felt. Colours are nice and even and flesh tones natural, while shadow detail is moderate and blacks are true. At 43:05 there’s a faint strip of unread code across the bottom of the screen, but this occurs during a progressive shot and doesn’t affect the visuals too greatly.

Delivered in Dolby Digital 5.1, the surrounds get themselves warmed up early and then slow to a halt by film’s end. They do get mildly busy occasionally, but the surround use is mainly limited to sporadic occasions, rather than a constant wear. The subwoofer does the same thing and usually kicks in at the same time as the surrounds. Dialogue is all in Chinese, but the subtitles do a fine job in keeping us abreast of the story. Music is a mixed bag of emotions to suit the characters and moments of the film. From funny to convivial to mystical to pensive, it’s always in the right place at the right time and wearing the right shoes.

There are no extras but for three trailers. These are for The Missing Gun (1.85:1 with no enhancement and 1:23 long), Le Pacte Du Silence and The Sea is Watching.

This one might not suit everyone’s tastes, but the rather simple plotline will probably suit those who find foreign cinema a little difficult. The division of the two halves is unusual, but we can put that down to the foreign angle again and be thankful not everyone thinks alike. This is worth checking out, if only for the unusual views of rural China.