Ash Is Purest White

    Ash Is Purest White
    2018

    Synopsis

    Set in China's underworld, this tale of love and betrayal follows a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight. On release from prison 5 years later, she sets out to find him.

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    Cast

    • Zhao TaoZhao Qiao
    • Liao FanGuo Bin
    • Diao Yi'nanLin Jiadong
    • Ding JialiWoman on Boat
    • Dong ZijianPoliceman in Fengjie
    • Xu ZhengMan from Karamay
    • Zhang YibaiFirst Man in Fengjie Restaurant
    • Zhang YiSecond Man in Fengjie Restaurant
    • Feng Xiaogang
    • Jiamei Feng

    Recommendations

    • 100

      The Film Stage

      Ash is Purest White is a tremendous, funny, heartbreaking, sprawling vehicle for Zhao, and what a gift it is to see her exploring the furthest reaches of those talents.
    • 90

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The performances of the two leads are riveting.
    • 83

      The A.V. Club

      It’s a surprisingly funny, even loopy film at times, with bursts of slapstick and screwball humor, plus a sporadic absurdism.
    • 80

      The Guardian

      What does the ending of Ash Is Purest White mean — and what does its middle or beginning mean? I’m not sure. It feels like a gripping parable for the vanity of human wishes, and another impassioned portrait of national malaise.
    • 80

      Variety

      The work has its intellectually ponderous moments but is ultimately saved by Jia’s muse and wife, Zhao Tao, who surpasses herself in a role of mesmerizing complexity.
    • 70

      New York Magazine (Vulture)

      By the end, the transformation of China is more compelling than Qiao’s love for Bin, but watching both unfold over time is continually thought-provoking, given the ephemerality of whole cities, much less love affairs.
    • 70

      Screen Daily

      The meandering narrative sprawls like a great Dickens novel but individual encounters and elements that may seem like distractions all reflect back on the greater themes.
    • 70

      Vanity Fair

      I love the way Jia grapples with large social shifts in such metaphorical and yet still intimate ways, peering in on individual people caught in the churn of time and growth and framing them in the defining context of their surroundings.