Unknown Pleasures

Jia Zhang-ke’s third feature, shot on digital video, is the gifted director’s foray into the time-honoured “disaffected youth” genre — and a remarkable portrait of Chinese ennui and uncertainty in the age of globalization. “Xiao Ji and Binbin, jobless 19-year-olds in Datong, [are] fairly typical of China’s current ‘no future’ generation. Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong) makes a shy play for the dancer Qiao Qiao (Zhao Tao, from Platform), undaunted by the fact that she's a gangster's mistress; Binbin (Zhao Weiwei) sings karaoke with a girl who's about to leave to study in Beijing. Eventually they get around to thinking about robbing a bank. Jia integrates fact (the upcoming Beijing Olympics, ads for the Shanxi provincial lottery) and references to news events to build up a credible sense of the fast-changing present, but he’s interested in a lot more than social reportage. As in the other films, his perspective is essentially spiritual: this lays bare the tao of contemporary China, like a doctor taking a pulse” (Tony Rayns, Time Out). Jia's virtuoso long takes, choreographed mise en scène, and feeling for character and behaviour place him in a class by himself” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). “His masterpiece” (The Rough Guide to Film). Colour, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles. 113 mins.