With its cinema verite feel and high melodrama, Mystery is something like a Lifetime movie directed by John Cassavetes. The plot is as mind-numbing and ridiculous as any from the aforementioned television station, a young wife and mother discovers her husband is cheating on her, and begins to unravel, taking desperate steps to avenge her lost honor, and in the process discovering a dark secret about her best friend. Meanwhile, her husband's mistress is killed in what appears to be a car accident, but the detective in charge of the case has his doubts, and begins to watch our protagonist with a closer eye. Mystery is a movie, which, at its best, is mildly enjoyable and entertaining. It really is not a bad movie, but it just does not have much of a point; it is a vanilla melodrama. Director Lou Ye, whose previous films were quite highly regarded, really does not seem to have much to say here. Is this a satire of the Chinese middle class? Or is it just melodrama for the sake of melodrama? If the latter is the case, at least he does it with style and verve, the main character's mental breakdown is like heat from an oven, you can feel it coming from the screen. But my comparison to a Lifetime movie is not exaggeration, I half expected Kirstie Alley to walk on screen at any moment. Ye even uses the same beige, stainless steel color palette that they use in the Lifetime thrillers. Contemporary Chinese cinema continues to produce daring, new, and exciting films, but this one is not of them.
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