Frozen (1997 film)

Frozen
Fox Lorber DVD cover
Traditional Chinese	極度寒冷
Simplified Chinese	极度寒冷
Literal meaning	extremely cold
Hanyu Pinyin	jídù hánlěng
Directed by	Wang Xiaoshuai
Written by	Pang Ming Wang Xiaoshuai
Starring	Jia Hongsheng Ma Xiaoqing
Cinematography	Yang Shu
Edited by	Qing Qing
Distributed by	International Film Circuit, Inc. (U.S.)
Release date	23 October 1997 (1997-10-23) (Netherlands)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	China
Language	Mandarin

Frozen (Chinese: 极度寒冷) is a 1997 Chinese film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. The film was originally shot in 1994, but was banned by Chinese authorities and had to be smuggled out of the country.^[1] Moreover, Wang was operating under a blacklisting from the Chinese Film Bureau that was imposed after his previous film, The Days, was screened internationally without government approval.^[2] As such, Wang was forced to use the pseudonym "Wu Ming" (literally "Anonymous") while making this film.

The film, supposedly based on a true story, follows a young performance artist, Qi Lei, who attempts to create a masterpiece centred on the theme of death. After two "acts" where he simulates death, he decides that his final act will be a true suicide through hypothermia.

Frozen was originally titled The Great Game (simplified Chinese: 大游戏; traditional Chinese: 大游戲; pinyin: Dà yóuxi). This was meant to reflect the attitude of both the film and the artist portrayed within it to treat death and suicide as a game or a manipulation.^[3]

Canadian scholar Erik Bordeleau has interpreted Frozen as an allegory of the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China. Qi Lei’s “experience of a radical loss of social subjectivity, staged in performative terms, powerfully echoes also that of the Tiananmen survivors, those whose lives did not come to an end, as did the world to which they belonged.”^[4]