Clearly an ambitious first feature, and it mostly hits the right spots in this ‘Magnolia’-inspired ensemble drama about China at the crossroads of modernity.
Tag / China
Trap Street (2013)
This seemingly saccharine drama about a blossoming romance between two strangers plunges headlong into an unexpected, but satisfying direction.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
Difficult to connect emotionally, though it features a technical masterclass in a nearly hour-long 3D sequence-shot that must be experienced on the big screen.
Angels Wear White (2017)
Qu’s second feature is a decent follow-up to ‘Trap Street’ in what is a bleak sociopolitical indictment of the treatment of women in modern society.
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.
