Starring: Yu Hewei, Zhang Yi, Qin Hailu, Zhu Yawen, Liu Haocun, Ni Dahong, Li Naiwen, Yu Ailei , Zhou Xiaofan Director: Zhang Yimou

ANOTHER classy Chinese action thriller whose dazzling style seems to take place in a deliberate narrative void, “Cliff Walkers” (previously titled “Impasse”) marks leading Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s first foray into the espionage genre. Following on the heels of his “One Second,” the new film is dedicated to “the heroes of the Revolution.” What audiences will take away is a visually entrancing parade of attractive actors in a pleasingly fluid spy-counterspy dance.

The film is set in the 1930s following the Japanese occupation of Manchukuo, a northeast puppet state that was once Chinese Manchuria. The atrocities committed by parts of the Japanese army during this period were recently dramatized in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Wife of a Spy,” best director award winner at Venice 2020. Here, again, the action is premised on the urgent need to get information out for the world to judge and act upon. In this case, the sole survivor of a Manchurian death camp must be smuggled out of China as an eyewitness to Japanese war crimes.

The Chinese Communist Party sends in a team of four secret agents, who have been highly trained in the Soviet Union and who are determined to succeed. We meet them parachuting through the snow over a forest of fir trees and falling gracefully through their branches to the ground in a mesmerizing opener. This lyrical intro sets the scene for some soulful cinematography and atmospheric sequences that will drive the film in place of a convincing spy story.

The four are two couples: the married pair Zhang (Zhang Yi of “Operation Red Sea”) and Yu (Qin Hailu), and the younger Chuliang (Zhu Yawen) and his waif-like girlfriend Lan (Liu Haocun). Zhang, the team leader, remixes the couples and they take off in different directions, heading for the northern capital of Harbin, where they are to rendezvous with the eyewitness.

But first, there are obstacles to overcome, codes to decipher and a bewildering series of turncoats, traitors and counterspies to unmask. The agents board a train to Harbin incognito and wait for a signal from an accomplice, but are double-crossed by a possible traitor. Fisticuffs follow. After that, the narrative becomes intricate enough to be safely ignored, especially since Zhang and Quan Yongxian’s screenplay doesn’t take the story nearly as seriously as the staging of sophisticated set pieces. Many scenes enjoyably salute cinema past, from Charlie Chaplin’s potato dance in an excerpt from “The Gold Rush,” to a whistling tune heard in front of a firing squad that tips its hat to Sergio Leone.

Yu Hewei appears late in the tale as embedded secret agent Zhou, who has to liaise with the team while sidestepping the ambiguous sector chief and head torturer, Gao (Ni Dahong). Though at first she seems like an add-on ingénue to the mission, young Liu Haocun (who also appears in “One Second”) eventually comes across as the most individualized member of the team, capable not only of deciphering deep codes but of feeling pain for the tortured fates of others. Qin Hailu, who starred in Fruit Chan’s “Durian Durian,” has a memorable maternal moment.

Apart from the sassy costumes, production design by Lin Mu re-creates Harbin's old streets and buildings with an aura of nostalgia.

The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. （SD-Agencies)