The Breaking Ice

Ran dong

64th TIFF: Greek Premiere

An ephemeral love triangle blossoms in the midst of winter between a girl and two young men, as their paths intersect in the border town of Yanji, China. And Anthony Chen, one of the brightest talents to emerge in Asian cinema over the past decade (Golden Camera at Cannes in 2013 with Ilo Ilo), gracefully shatters any fixed perception of Generation Z, crafting an impressionistic portrait of a misunderstood generation that found itself bearing the heaviest burden of the recent pandemic's winter storm. The unrestrained, subcutaneous eroticism of Ang Lee’s films (The Ice Storm, Lust, Caution, Brokeback Mountain) meets the playful romanticism of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim in a delicate love letter to the French New Wave, written in the snow.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Anthony Chen

Script: Anthony Chen

Cinematography: Yu Jing-Pin

Editing: Hoping Chen, Soo Mun Thye

Sound: Zhe Wu

Music: Kin Leonn

Actors: Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran, Qu Chuxiao

Production: Canopy Pictures, Huace Pictures

Producers: Meng Xie, Anthony Chen

Costumes: Li-Hua

Production Design: Du Luxi

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: China

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 97'

Distribution in Greece: One from the Heart

Contact: Rediance

Anthony Chen

Anthony Chen is a Singaporean film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is known for directing the feature films Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019). His debut feature film, Ilo Ilo, won the Camera d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, making him the first and only Singaporean to have been awarded at Cannes. Following his mandatory conscription in the army, Chen was admitted to the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the United Kingdom. Graduating in 2010, two of his short films, Distance and Lighthouse, were released that year. The Break Away (2021) is Chen's short film contribution to the anthology The Year of The Everlasting Storm, selected at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.