General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Frozen (极度寒冷) (1997 film)

Frozen (极度寒冷, Jidu hanleng, literally "Extreme Cold") is a 1997 Chinese independent drama film written and directed by Wang Xiaoshuai (王小帥), starring Jia Hongshen (贾宏声) and Ma Xiaoqing (马晓晴). It follows a young avant-garde performance artist in Beijing who stages a sequence of four symbolic deaths across the solar terms (24 seasonal divisions of the traditional East Asian calendar) of the traditional calendar, culminating in a planned real suicide that he calls an "ice burial" (冰葬)¹^•². The film was shot in 1994 as an unauthorized independent production, completed in the Netherlands in 1997, and released under the pseudonym Wu Ming (无名, "No Name")³^•⁴. It is a central work of China's independent "underground" cinema of the 1990s and of the Sixth Generation of Chinese directors⁵.

Key fact	Detail
Chinese / English title	极度寒冷 (Jidu hanleng, "Extreme Cold") / Frozen¹
Director and writer	Wang Xiaoshuai, credited under the pseudonym Wu Ming⁴
Cast	Jia Hongshen as Qi Lei; Ma Xiaoqing as his girlfriend; with Li Geng, Liu Jie, and Zhang Yongning¹^•⁶
Production	Shot in Beijing in 1994; post-production funded by the Rotterdam Film Festival and completed in the Netherlands in 1997³^•⁷
Release	23 October 1997 (Netherlands); screened in the Tiger Competition at the 1997 International Film Festival Rotterdam¹^•⁷
Format	Mandarin language, 16mm, color; runtime reported as 90 minutes by IFFR and 97 to 99 minutes by Chinese databases⁷^•⁸
Crew	Cinematography Yang Shu; editing Qing Qing; producers Shu Kei's Creative Workshop and Anotherfilm; world sales Fortissimo Films⁷

Spoilers

Plot

The protagonist Qi Lei (齐雷), a young avant-garde artist played by Jia Hongshen, designs a performance work in four parts tied to the solar terms: a simulated earth burial on the day of Liqiu (the beginning of autumn), a simulated drowning on the winter solstice, a symbolic cremation on Lichun (the beginning of spring), and finally, on the summer solstice, the melting of a huge block of ice using nothing but his own body warmth².

After the first three parts attract attention from the media, fellow artists, and passers-by, Qi Lei announces that in the final part he will end his life for real, naming the act an "ice burial" and framing it as a protest against the coldness of society². When his girlfriend (Ma Xiaoqing) and friends learn of his intention, they try hard to talk him out of self-destruction¹. A second version of the synopsis adds a twist: what they do not know is that the determined Qi Lei is a pawn of an unseen backstage manipulator, and his performance is itself one piece of a larger "performance art" containing a conspiracy².

The Rotterdam festival synopsis frames the story psychologically: as the normally hot longest day of the year approaches, Qi realizes that it is not the block of ice that is so cold, but his surroundings⁷.

Production and censorship

An underground production. Wang Xiaoshuai, born in Shanghai in 1966 and a directing graduate of the Beijing Film Academy (1985 to 1989), had made his self-financed black-and-white debut The Days (冬春的日子) in 1993⁹. After that film was blacklisted, he shot Frozen in 1994 with inadequate funds and equipment, describing the method as a hand-workshop style of filmmaking comparable to the New Wave¹⁰. In interviews he has said the film grew out of the 1994 suicide of a performance artist, which had a wide impact, combined with his own depressed mood and the atmosphere of society at the time¹⁰. A scholarly account describes the film as a fictional re-creation of that suicide, adopting a minimalist documentary style (jilu fengge)¹¹.

Because the film was an independent production without state approval, it was illegal in the eyes of the Film Bureau, and the subsequent outlawing of unauthorized filmmaking forced the director to hide behind the pseudonym Wu Ming¹². Wang has explained the pseudonym as a way to protect the release of his suspended earlier project Biandan, Guniang¹³.

Post-production abroad. Wang finished shooting in 1994 but had no money for post-production and set the footage aside; he then made Biandan, Guniang in 1995. The Rotterdam Film Festival learned of the unfinished film and invited him to complete post-production in the Netherlands, which he did in 1997 while waiting for the censorship of his other film³. The consequences followed him: after Frozen was completed in 1997, he was penalized again, made to write self-criticisms, and fined 10,000 yuan³. In a later recollection he counted three self-criticisms written over his career, for The Days, Frozen, and Beijing Bicycle, with fines totaling 20,000 yuan¹⁴. The film could not be released in China, and Wang remained barred from directing until the state relaxed its position; in late 2003 and early 2004 he spoke publicly about the lifting of the ban on directors like himself⁹.

Release and reception

Frozen premiered internationally in 1997 and was screened in the Tiger Competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam⁷. Sources disagree on its exact awards. A 2004 Sina profile states that Frozen won the FIPRESCI international critics' prize at the 1997 Rotterdam festival⁹; the production company's biography records a Special Mention by the jury in Rotterdam⁴; and the abstract of a 2002 journal article on the film lists a Special Prize of the Americas at the 21st Montreal International Film Festival and a Best Director award at the 27th Rotterdam festival¹⁵. The film subsequently played at festivals in Canada, Britain, and Germany, according to Wang's filmography⁹.

Criticism has emphasized the film's treatment of death. A study of Wang's career describes Frozen as telling a contemporary story about suicide in an almost cruel way, and notes that death or the threat of death occupies an important place across his films¹⁶. Berenice Reynaud's review, published in Art Forum and translated in Sina Entertainment, called the film a fictional story shot like a documentary, offering a rare insight into the turbulence of contemporary Chinese society and the predicament of "this generation"¹⁷. Academic work has read the film as an expression of post-Tiananmen despair, noting that its staged death evokes the traditional trope of restless ghosts and the difficulty of memorializing victims of state violence¹⁸.

Legacy

Frozen stands as the second feature of one of the central figures of China's Sixth Generation and a key document of the underground film era of the 1990s, when independent productions could not be shown legally at home and their makers risked fines, self-criticism, and bans⁵^•³. Its lead actor Jia Hongshen died on 5 July 2010, at the age of 43¹⁹.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026