Suzhou River

A film by Lou Ye

A visually arresting tale of mystery and obsession set in the neon lit nightclubs and grimy industrial wastelands of Shanghai. The story is told by and shot directly from the point of view of the unseen narrator. He guides us through the streets, along the banks of the heavily polluted and industrialised Suzhou river, and we watch his girlfriend Meimei, whom he is obsessively filming, as she dresses and prepares to leave her riverside home. He tells us that Meimei has unexpected periods of sadness, often disappearing for days at a time without explanation. His own moments of sadness then turn to joy when he sees her return, walking over the bridge with her arms folded across her chest. He then begins to recount the story of Moudan and Mardar.

Mardar is a motorcycle courier working in the city. One of his clients, a shady businessman, regularly hires Mardar to drive his sixteen-year-old daughter, Moudan, to her aunt's house while he entertains his latest girlfriend at home. Moudan and Mardar grow fond of each other and a relationship develops. He gives her a mermaid doll as a birthday present. But then Mardar becomes entangled with a crime gang who force him to kidnap Moudan and demand ransom money from her rich father. She escapes from him outside the empty warehouse where she has been held, disappointed at his betrayal of her love and enraged by the small amount of ransom money he is due to receive in return. Moudan runs from him, and clutching the mermaid doll, throws herself off a bridge into the poisonous river, promising that one day she'll return as a mermaid.

Mardar serves a three-year jail sentence for his part in the crime, and still wracked with grief over Moudan's supposed death, eventually returns to Shanghai and to his work as a courier, whilst endlessly searching all over the city for Moudan. But no one has seen her or knows what happened to her because a body was never recovered. One night as he walks into a bar, Mardar encounters a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Moudan. He follows her to the nightclub where she works, performing an underwater mermaid act in a tank, and Mardar is convinced that the girl, Meimei, is his lost love.

The jerky handheld visuals, harsh lighting and stunning colours all bring a heightened sense of reality to the film, and we are drawn into the tragedy of Moudan and Mardar, the narrator's own part in the story, and the feelings that develop between Mardar and Meimei. An intriguing, captivating and beautiful love story, with a heartbreaking conclusion and an unexpected narrative twist bringing the plot full circle.

Smiley's People

A TV mini-series dramatised by John Hopkins from the novel by John le Carré, and directed by Simon Langton.

George Smiley is once more called from retirement to come to the aid of 'the Circus', the code-name for the British Secret Intelligence Service. He is asked to settle the affairs of an old friend, an émigré Estonian general and British agent, who has been assassinated on his way to a meeting in a safe house in London. Smiley's old organisation, the Circus, has become so overwhelmed by political considerations that it wants no involvement. As Smiley begins to retrace the events of his friend's last days, the clues lead to his seemingly invulnerable nemesis in Soviet counter-intelligence, Karla, who may have finally exposed an Achilles heel.

Years before, Karla had nearly destroyed British counter-intelligence, wrecking Smiley's marriage in the process. Following an initial hunch and a fragment of evidence, Smiley methodically begins to put the pieces together, despite the fact that almost everyone he knows advises him to go home and enjoy his retirement. At the same time, Karla, realising that he has probably jeopardised himself by bending his own rigidly enforced rules, is ruthlessly trying to cover his own tracks.

Resolutely overcoming all obstacles he encounters, and with the help of some of his ex-colleagues, including the elegant but dubious former master of spy tradecraft, Toby Esterhase, Smiley collects the evidence needed to secure the support of Saul Enderby, the vain and cynical current chief of the revamped Circus. Smiley's investigations send him digging into the past on a twisted trail across Europe that moves, inexoribly, towards a final confrontation with his old adversary, Karla of Moscow Centre.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

A TV mini-series dramatised by Arthur Hopcraft from the novel by John le Carré, and directed by John Irvin.

George Smiley is a retired principal counter-intelligence officer who is secretly brought back into 'the Circus', the code-name for the British Secret Intelligence Service, to root out a top-level mole. Smiley did not actually retire, but was removed from his post, the head of personnel, as a result of a remarkably orchestrated long-term plan by his old adversary, code-name Karla, the head of Moscow Centre.

Smiley's chief, known only as Control, had been detecting markers of Karla's intricate scheme for months and had narrowed the mole's identity to five senior officers. To stop him, Karla fashioned a set-up in the form of an offer that Control could simply not refuse. The necessarily unsanctioned operation to exploit the offer failed catastrophically, and Control, disgraced, was forced out, taking with him Smiley who, as Control's most trusted ally, was found guilty by association and also banished.

When Ricki Tarr, a resourceful, low-level field agent, thought to have defected, turns up in Britain with solid evidence pointing to the existence of the mole, thereby validating Control's long-term suspicions, Smiley, the sole remnant of the old order who can be trusted, is called in to spy on the spies. Without official access to any of the files in the Circus and without revealing that anyone is under suspicion, Smiley gradually pieces together the story, trawling through the murky waters of Cold War espionage and the painful memories from his own past.