Chinese directors master Nordic noir, shoot-'em-up Western

THE DARK SIDE

Still photos of No Man's Land

Chinese film 'Black Coal, Thin Ice' screens in Berlin

Chinese film 'Tui Na' screens in Berlin

"Black Coal" director Diao Yinan, who won awards for "Night Train" in 2007, said he ignored the advice "cold films don't sell". He wanted to portray the warmth of emotions beneath, and evil, to help us all "feel less alone with our dark side".

In "No Man's Land", fresh-faced lawyer Pan Xiao gets on the wrong side of falcon poachers, two truckers and nearly everyone else in the northwestern Chinese desert. A blend of "Mad Max" and Sergio Leone, complete with strumming guitars, it has some improbably deep dialogues amid the violence.

"People are capable of doing anything when they are in extreme danger. It's called animal instinct," says Pan, played by Xu Zheng, who reflected after the screening that layers of civilization were "peeled off" his character in the desert.

Director Diao said he watched a lot of Westerns as a child and nodded to the influence of Tarantino, but said he was much more heavily influenced by Chinese artists and the wish to tell "a Chinese story" about greed and its impact on society.

The third Chinese entry in the main competition in Berlin, "Blind Massage" by Lou Ye, depicts in intimate detail life at a massage clinic staffed by blind people.

Adapted from a novel by Bi Feiyu, it uses blind amateurs and professional actors like Guo Xiaodong, playing Dr Wang. He rejected the role at first because of the challenge of working with the blind, then lived among them to prepare for it.

"I ate together with them, lived with them and really felt how it is when you are closed out, how the world changes and how it treats you," he said.