The Loner

In 1948 the corrupt in-law of a newly appointed minister in the Nationalist government in Chongqing travels with the minister from Xinjiang with a collection of loot which attracts robbers.

On a cold night, psychology student Liu Kai took Jing Huan, a paranoid schizophrenia patient, to a mysterious frozen lake she had often dreamed of. The lake reflected an “8” shape, causing Jing Huan’s expression to change, unsettling Liu Kai. During an internship at a psychiatric hospital, Liu Kai’s classmate Xie Ni, who was in a relationship with him, became interested in Jing Huan, a former factory cashier who developed mental illness after embezzling funds. Xie Ni wanted to study Jing Huan’s condition for a thesis and asked Liu Kai to help her, even arranging for Jing Huan to stay at her home.

Director Zhang Junzhao's superbly tense revisionist war film (featuring striking cinematography from future Fifth Generation standard bearer Zhang Yimou) is widely considered to be the first work of Mainland Fifth Generation cinema.