Even if Suffocation (the original Chinese title is Zhixi) were a miserable failure of a movie, it would still be of tremendous importance because it is essentially China's very first horror film. Billed as "the first Chinese psycho movie," this heavy, psychological thriller dances on the cutting edge of Chinese cinema, where none dare refer to it as "horror" because, quite simply, the totalitarian government's censors do not allow horror films to be made -- not on the mainland, anyway. It's most unfortunate, given the fact that China, with its rich history of movie-making, is surrounded by the premier makers of horror in the world today (Japan, South Korea and Thailand) -- but that's Communism for you.

Suffocation is made even more memorable to its Chinese audience by the fact that its star, You Ge, is one of the country's most famous comic actors.

I'm not going to pretend that I understand all of the many facets of this film, as it is all rather complex. It looks for all the world as if Chen Xiao (You Ge) has murdered his musician wife and hidden her body inside a skiff on the beach. In what would appear to be a most cold and calculating move, he calls a friend over by telling him his wife Meizi (Hailu Qin) has not returned home as expected from a trip, then sneaks the body out (in his wife's cello case) during the night as his friend sleeps. The next day, Chen's friend's wife discovers that the back of the car is soaked from someone having left the window open during the previous night's downpour and finds a pair of women's shoes in the back seat. Even in the absence of a body, that makes for some pretty convincing evidence that Chen killed his wife and disposed of the body.

Matters are not as clear-cut as they would appear, however. A sense of surreality builds as the movie progresses, mixing dreams, flashbacks and reality in such a way that you become increasingly unsure of what is real and what is fantasy. Meizi herself becomes a haunting presence in Chen's world, and his visits with a psychotherapist introduce more questions than answers.

With comparatively little in the way of dialogue and a dense, plodding pace, Suffocation is not a film that will naturally appeal to Western audiences. I personally found myself nodding off a time or two just after the mid-way point. There's a strong artistic quality to the whole presentation, especially in terms of cinematography and sound, that -- impressive as it is -- doesn't translate into mass appeal. In the end, what we have here is an important, impressive film that really isn't all that enjoyable to watch.