Freely adapted from Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the film follows the investigation of a local teacher's murder in a small and desperately poor rural village, the story of the crime gradually pieced together from the fragmented memories of witnesses forced to testify at an inquest. Sharing with her Fifth Generation colleagues Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang a remarkable eye for the barren landscapes of northern China and a fascination with small-town life — especially those enduring superstitions that Communism failed to erase — director Li Shaohong also introduces several formal innovations, particularly in storytelling structure, that remain unprecedented in Chinese cinema.
Zhaohui Gong
as 张强国
胡亚捷
as 李明光
Lu Hui
as 林长
Wong Kwong-Kuen
as 调查员
解衍
as 李狗娃
赵君
as 李平娃
孔琳
as 李红杏
巨兴茂
as 满意
Miao Miao
as 崔永芳
Linlang Ye
as 盆嫂
