Trap Street (film)

Trap Street (Chinese: 水印街; pinyin: Shuiyin jie) is a 2013 Chinese film written and directed by debut Chinese film director Vivian Qu, and starring Lu Yulai and He Wenchao. It premiered at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the prestigious Luigi De Laurentiis Award. It subsequently won the Dragons and Tigers Award - Special Mention and second place in the Award itself at the Vancouver International Film Festival in the same year, and the Grand Jury Prize at the Boston Independent Film Festival in early 2014.

The film tells the story of a young digital map-making surveyor, working for a digital mapping company, who in his spare time helps install CCTV cameras. He becomes infatuated with a young woman who works at a mysterious building in a street he has recently mapped. After establishing what appears to be a growing friendship, he loses contact with her. Determined to find her by using his computing and electronic skills, he discovers that the street has mysteriously disappeared from the electronic record, and the CCTV images of it are not accessible.

Trap Street tells the story of a young digital map-making surveyor, Li Qiuming, who works for a digital mapping company in a city in Southern China. During his spare time, he makes a little extra money by helping private clients to install CCTV cameras in places he has identified on his maps. One day, he finds an attractive young woman, and deciding to pluck up the courage to meet her, he tells her about his hobbies and the nature of his job. Her name is Guan Lifen. She seems to be uninterested in him, but he persists, and soon becomes infatuated with her. He offers her a lift home in his car, but after he has dropped her off, notices a small box with a memory stick inside it. He resolves to return it to her as soon as he can, and arranges to meet her at a local cafe. However, Guan does not turn up, and a man arrives instead to collect the memory stick, asking Li for his home address so that he can thank him properly.

While looking for Guan, Li discovers her in an unlabelled street: it is called Forest Lane, and he sees Guan entering a mysterious building in it, known as Lab 23. He meets her and she now seems more interested in him. During a subsequent meeting, Li gives her the present of a satellite navigation device for her car, which impresses her, and they seem to become friends.