From the long take at the opening of the film, with the camera following protagonist Tao strolling down the hallway repeatedly asking: 'Does anyone have a Bandaid?', I knew I was in for an extraordinary film experience. Two hours later this was validated.
Make no mistake. This film is not for everyone - it is slow, has no action scenes, and the language is foreign to many. But director Jia Zhangke told his story with no fanfare and with precision. The people in the film are ordinary people - young migrants from a less prosperous part of the country coming to Beijing in the hope of making a better living and working in a theme park. Once settled they encouraged their family members and relatives to do the same. The comradeship among these migrants was strong - they felt obligated to look after one another. And when tragedy struck, grief was shared by many.
Jia's work was frowned upon by the China authorities, and I think I know they reason why - Jia did such a good job in exposing the 'imperfections' of modern day Chinese society. From the soft-toned recording welcoming visitors to the mock-up Eiffel Tower, played repeatedly to the extend it became extremely annoying, to the paid-out of 300,000 yuan (less then $5,000) against a young life lost due to an industrial accident, we see the imbalance and injustice in the society. Yes, in a country of 1.3B people life is cheap. But when you see the dollar value assigned to this young man, nicked name 'second sister' lovingly by his parents who yearned for a girl at his birth, one cannot but feel despondent about a society demonstrating visible wealth, and yet endorsing such an unfair valuation of life. And Jia wants us to know this through his film, whether we care about it or not.
This is film to watch and to ponder upon. It is about love and life for the ordinary, young generation in China. You will see they face challenges just like their counterparts in other parts of the world. And yet some of these challenges may have a flavour unique to China. The viewer is the one to make that association. I highly recommend this film to serious film fans who want to see something different for a change - an art-house piece with a cultural twist.
Make no mistake. This film is not for everyone - it is slow, has no action scenes, and the language is foreign to many. But director Jia Zhangke told his story with no fanfare and with precision. The people in the film are ordinary people - young migrants from a less prosperous part of the country coming to Beijing in the hope of making a better living and working in a theme park. Once settled they encouraged their family members and relatives to do the same. The comradeship among these migrants was strong - they felt obligated to look after one another. And when tragedy struck, grief was shared by many.
Jia's work was frowned upon by the China authorities, and I think I know they reason why - Jia did such a good job in exposing the 'imperfections' of modern day Chinese society. From the soft-toned recording welcoming visitors to the mock-up Eiffel Tower, played repeatedly to the extend it became extremely annoying, to the paid-out of 300,000 yuan (less then $5,000) against a young life lost due to an industrial accident, we see the imbalance and injustice in the society. Yes, in a country of 1.3B people life is cheap. But when you see the dollar value assigned to this young man, nicked name 'second sister' lovingly by his parents who yearned for a girl at his birth, one cannot but feel despondent about a society demonstrating visible wealth, and yet endorsing such an unfair valuation of life. And Jia wants us to know this through his film, whether we care about it or not.
This is film to watch and to ponder upon. It is about love and life for the ordinary, young generation in China. You will see they face challenges just like their counterparts in other parts of the world. And yet some of these challenges may have a flavour unique to China. The viewer is the one to make that association. I highly recommend this film to serious film fans who want to see something different for a change - an art-house piece with a cultural twist.