Frozen

Life, death and art become fatally intertwined in this provocative new film from China, and the result is chilling. Purportedly based on a true event, it opens shortly after the suicide of Qi Lei (Jia Honshen), a young Beijing performance artist who turned his own death into a work of conceptual art. The how and why are explored in flashback. Obsessed with death, Qi Lei plans a series performances, one for each season of a single year, each pushing his body further toward the boundary between life and death. In autumn he buries himself up to neck in earth; winter finds Qi Lei floating face down in water; in spring, he sits surrounded by fire. Qi Lei saves the firs...