Keep Cool (1997)

Original title

有话好好说

Directed by

Zhang Yimou

Genre

comedy film

Country

People's Republic of China

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 61 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A lovesick bookseller in 1990s Beijing gets caught up in a series of escalating conflicts after a chance encounter. He tries to sort out a messy situation with a hot-headed taxi driver and a neurotic friend.

chaoticfreneticabsurdstreet-levelenergeticsarcasticgrittyoffbeat

What happens

Keep Cool (simplified Chinese: 有话好好说; traditional Chinese: 有話好好說; pinyin: Yǒu Huà Hǎo Hǎo Shuō; lit. 'If you have something to say', 'say it nicely') is a 1997 Chinese black comedy film directed by Zhang Yimou and adapted from the novel Evening Papers News by Shu Ping. The film, which is about a bookseller in love in 1990s Beijing, marked a move away from Zhang's earlier period pictures to a more realistic cinéma vérité-like era in his career that also saw him make Happy Times (2000) and Not One Less (1999). Keep Cool also marked only the third time Zhang placed his film in the modern era and the first time Zhang did not work with actress Gong Li. The film was produced by the Guangxi Film Studio. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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