THE SHADOWLESS TOWER (2023) introduced many new viewers to Zhang Lü, who for a quarter-century has been crafting finely-wrought dramas in South Korea and his native China. GLOAMING IN LUOMU—recipient of the top prize at the Busan Film Festival's first-ever official competition—extends the winning streak, with its deceptively minor-key tale of Xiao Bai (Bai Baihe) in the shadow of Sichuan's famous Mount Emei. Drawn to the small town of Luomu by a cryptic postcard from her ex Wang (Wang Chuanjun), Xiao Bai finds ghostly traces of Wang and drifts among assorted locals, most notably a world-weary, day-drinking innkeeper (Liu Dan) and her happy-go-lucky suitor (Huang Jianxin). Though semi-improvised in the wake of Zhang's previous film MOTHERTONGUE (made with the same principal cast), GLOAMING IN LUOMU is no mere afterthought but a masterly evocation of mood and place, permeated with the bouquet of wine and the texture of cobblestoned streets.