Haofeng (Haoran Liu) is a young accountant from Shanghai, visiting the northern Chinese city of Yanji for a former classmate’s wedding. When he loses his smartphone – and with it access to his bank account – he winds up relying on the generosity of local tour guide Nana (Dongyu Zhou) and her restaurant cook friend Xiao (Chuxiao Qu). Over several days of wandering the city’s various sights, an unexpected and close bond begins to form between them – each struggling with their own personal crises.

The Breaking Ice is a new Chinese drama from Singaporean writer/director Anthony Chen. It was selected for competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and has made its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival. It is a tremendous piece of work, both emotionally involving and remarkably delicate. It has a subtlety of storytelling that is phenomenally effective. At the time of writing it is mid-August; this is currently the best new film I have seen in 2023 to date.

The story’s resemblance to François Truffaut’s 1962 classic Jules et Jim has led to a lot of critics to compare Chen’s film to the nouvelle vague. While it is an understandable comparison to make, it does tend to overlook how much of The Breaking Ice already fits neatly into the mould of contemporary Chinese cinema. The modest scale, handheld photography, desolate locations, and broad avoidance of non-diegetic sound are all hallmarks of independent film in China, and Chen has directed an exemplary example of the form. While the French New Wave may indeed lend a heavy influence, this is Chinese film at its very best.

Its setting in Yanji provides much of its tone and atmosphere. It is a small city surrounded by a bleak wintry landscape. Outside the city limits, barbed wire fences mark a miserable border with North Korea, and throughout the film news updates and posted notices alert the viewer to an unseen refugee on the run from the Chinese authorities. Even in its brighter corners, Yanji feels like a vibrant city slowly being swallowed up by a snow-covered wasteland. It is a setting reminiscent of Diao Yinan’s 2014 thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice – that was set in neighbouring Heilongjiang, to similar effect. Yu Jing-Pin, who previously shot the award-winning Better Days (2019), does superb work. It is bleak, but beautiful.

The Breaking Ice is centred on three exceptional performances. Each actor is gifted with a screenplay that offers enormous room for invention, and which pointedly refuses to pin down specifics of each protagonist’s back story and personality. What viewers learn throughout the film directs them to form conclusions, but not as much certainty as one would expect. So much of the performances’ best elements are contained in these spaces.

This is the sort of film for which superlatives are invented. I will limit myself to one: The Breaking Ice is outstanding.

The Breaking Ice screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Click here for more information.