AllMovie

Keep Cool is a 1997 Chinese black comedy directed by Zhang Yimou and adapted from the novel Evening Papers News by Shu Ping. The film, which is about a bookseller in love in 1990s Beijing, marked a move away from Zhang's earlier period pictures to a more realistic cinéma vérité-like era in his career that also saw him make Happy Times (2000) and Not One Less (1999). Keep Cool also marked only the third time Zhang placed his film in the modern era and the first time Zhang did not work with actress Gong Li.