Despite Lou Ye’s reputation for pushing the boundaries of Chinese censorship guidelines – due to his often frank and incisive takes on politics, gender, and sexuality – Mystery proves a confoundingly tame affair. It opens with the antics of privileged, hedonistic youths racing cars on rain-slicked roads, one of which violently careens into an already blood-covered woman who stumbles into their path. (As proof of the film’s lack of nuance, the unremorseful driver kicks the dying woman multiple times as…
