As China urbanises, a man stagnates in this masterful and revelatory feature debut by Jia Zhangke, shot in 16mm and featuring non-professional actors.
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Pickpocket (1998)
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Category / Jia, Zhangke
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Still Life (2006)
A stunning work of geographical and existential malaise and one of Jia Zhangke’s finest docu-fictive accomplishments, gorgeously shot along the Yangtze River in Fengjie County as a man and a woman separately search for their estranged spouse amid the human impact of the Three Gorges Dam’s construction.
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Ash Is Purest White (2018)
A Jia Zhangke enthusiast might find this very much a recycling of past themes—not that it is any bad, but that greatness seems elusive as the film progresses.
Mountains May Depart (2015)
Jia Zhangke returns to form in this superior drama about the ties that bind us together, even if we scatter like fireworks.
Touch of Sin, A (2013)
A sprawling and inconsistently-paced effort with multiple stories and unrelated characters whose sum is lesser than its parts.
