There’s something very deeply moving and universal about Jia’s seemingly mundane documentary about the stories of workers (and their children) who used to ply their trade in a Chengdu factory that had made way for new commercial development as China rapidly modernised in the 2000s.
As China urbanises, a man stagnates in this masterful and revelatory feature debut by Jia Zhangke, shot in 16mm and featuring non-professional actors.
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.
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.
Jia Zhangke returns to form in this superior drama about the ties that bind us together, even if we scatter like fireworks.
A sprawling and inconsistently-paced effort with multiple stories and unrelated characters whose sum is lesser than its parts.
