In the opening shot of “Suburban Birds,” the spectacular feature-directing debut of Qiu Sheng, there’s a blurry-edged circle inside the square frame, a far-off cityscape in the distance. A man eventually comes into frame, and the view swivels. The effect can be taken as a reflection of the viewer’s own eye, with the sharp center representing the pupil, and the blurred portion the outer iris.

We soon learn the view is through a surveyor’s level. While the director’s camera does not peer though that device again, the perspectives in this movie shift subtly but distinctly from adult’s eye view, to child’s eye view, to a hushed omniscience and back.

A crew of four male engineers are taking measurements on the outskirts of a growing Chinese city. The area seems to be plagued by craters, or sinkholes — it’s hard to say. The men don’t discuss the work in much detail. One of them, Hao (Mason Lee), initiates a sexual relationship with a female resident of his hotel, Swallow (Lu Huang). Alone one afternoon, he enters a suburban school through a window. The movie initially gives no clues as to why. Inside, he rifles though a desk, and finds a journal.