Er shi si cheng ji (2008)

Change and a city in China. In Chengdu, factory 420 is being pulled down to make way for multi-story buildings with luxury flats. Scenes of factory operations, of the workforce, and of ... See full summary »

Director:

Zhangke Jia

Writers:

Zhangke Jia, Yongming Zhai

Stars:

Jianbin Chen, Joan Chen, Liping Lü

5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jianbin Chen
Joan Chen	...	Gu Minhua / Xiao Hua
Liping Lü	...	Hao Dali
Tao Zhao	...	Su Na

Storyline

Change and a city in China. In Chengdu, factory 420 is being pulled down to make way for multi-story buildings with luxury flats. Scenes of factory operations, of the workforce, and of buildings stripped bare and then razed, are inter-cut with workers who were born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s telling their stories - about the factory, which manufactured military aircraft, and about their work and their lives. A middle-aged man visits his mentor, now elderly; a woman talks of being a 19-year-old beauty there and ending up alone. The film concludes with two young people talking, each the child of workers, each relaying a story of one visit to a factory. Times change.

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Plot Keywords:

factory | china | fired from the job | factory dismantling | same actor playing two characters | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Ad Vitam [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

China Hong Kong Japan

Language:

Mandarin Shanghainese

Release Date:

6 March 2009 (China)

Also Known As:

24 City

Filming Locations:

Chengdu, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company,Bitters End,China Resources

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During a press conference at the 61st Cannes Film Festival for the film, Zhangke Jia, Joan Chen and Tao Zhao observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the 2008 devastating earthquake in China. The film was shot in Chengdu, in Sichuan province where the earthquake struck.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.15 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Sleepless Tonight
Lyrics by Zhu Hai
Composed by Meng Weidong

User Reviews

Glacially slow and achingly sad

Not many Chinese films obtain a release in Western cinemas. Those that do tend to be set in the distant past and have large casts, colourful costumes and exciting action - think "Hero", "House Of Flying Daggers", "Curse Of The Golden Flower" and "Red Cliff". This is not one of those movies. "24 City" is contemporary in subject, pedestrian in pacing, and documentary in style (director Jia Zhang-ke uses a mix of real characters and actors including Joan Chen).

It is set in the city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China, which I visited a few weeks before seeing the film and I took along two friends from Sichuan who know the city well. It tells the terribly sad tale of the closure of a factory, which once employed 4,000 workers on the manufacture of military hardware, so that the site can be used for a modern complex of apartments and hotels - the 24 City of the title.

The unusual part documentary/part fiction style - there are five authentic interviews and four fictional scenes delivered by actors - means that the work lacks the 'bite' of a real documentary and the narrative of full fiction, but the critics liked it.