Keep Cool (film)

Keep Cool
Film poster for the Japanese release of Keep Cool
Directed by	Zhang Yimou
Produced by	Wang Qipeng Wang Wei Zhang Weiping
Written by	Shu Ping
Starring	Li Baotian Jiang Wen Ge You Qu Ying
Music by	Zang Tianshuo
Cinematography	Lü Yue
Edited by	Du Yuan
Distributed by	Golem Distribución (Spain)
Release date	Venice: September 2, 1997
Running time	93 min.
Country	China
Language	Mandarin

Keep Cool (simplified Chinese: 有话好好说; traditional Chinese: 有話好好說; pinyin: Yǒu Huà Hǎo Hǎo Shuō; literally: "If you have something to say, say it nicely") is a 1997 Chinese black comedy directed by Zhang Yimou and adapted from the novel Evening Papers News by Shu Ping. The film about a bookseller in love in 1990s Beijing, marked a move away from earlier period pictures of Zhang's earlier work to a more realistic Cinéma vérité-like period in his career that also saw him make Happy Times (2000) and Not One Less (1999). Keep Cool also marked only the second time Zhang placed his film in the modern era and the first time Zhang did not work with actress Gong Li.

The film was produced by the Guangxi Film Studio.

The film is set in contemporaneous Beijing. It begins with bookseller Zhao Xiaoshuai (Jiang Wen) who is following his ex-lover An Hong (Qu Ying) home, obviously after an unhappy and one-sided break-up. He tracks the fast-walking An Hong on a bus and later on a bicycle, until she reaches her flat and goes up to her apartment. There, Zhao gets a junk peddler (Zhang Yimou, the director himself, speaking in his native Shaanxi accent) and another peddler to call out her name and declare his undying love to her at the high-rise flats.

The next day, the temperamental An Hong becomes impressed enough by Xiaoshuai's efforts to take him up her apartment for a quickie, but their tryst is interrupted by another man (Zhao Benshan) downstairs, reciting some nonsensical poetry through a loudhailer. Apparently, the person is hired by the peddler Xiaoshuai hired the day before (who has absconded from the job). Xiaoshuai tries unsuccessfully to get the man to stop, and in a huff the angered An Hong leaves her apartment. Xiaoshuai is baffled by his ex blowing hot and cold at him.