Rao has an eye for kooky irony and knows how to get the most from his actors, and he clearly has a few things to say about modern China, but his ambition occasionally exceeds his grasp.

The Chinese film "A Cool Fish" is one of those bold genre collisions of crime, comedy and pathos that either carries you along on its currents, or leaves you a disaffected bystander, and the latter is the more likely outcome here.

Why see A Cool Fish? Good question, I don't know. Its plot, action, and acting are underwhelming.

A mix of parallel missteps offset by hard but unassuming social commentary that slowly comes to the fore even as the improbable storylines are tied together.