Unknown Pleasures (film)
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| Unknown Pleasures | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jia Zhangke |
| Produced by | Shozo Ichiyama Kit Ming Li |
| Written by | Jia Zhangke |
| Starring | Wei Wei Zhao Qiong Wu Tao Zhao |
| Cinematography | Nelson Yu Lik-wai |
| Editing by | Chow Keung |
| Running time | France: 113 min Japan:112 |
| Country |  China |
| Language | Mandarin |
| IMDb profile | |
Unknown Pleasures (Chinese: 任逍遥; pinyin: Rèn xiāo yáo) is a 2002 Chinese movie directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Wei Wei Zhao and Tao Zhao.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Outline
The film wanders about the lives of two young Chinese people. It is a moment in their lives in which they will be either abducted by the system, or be outcasts for the rest of their lives. With very alienating surroundings, the only thing that moves their lives is love. And in absence of it, raw activism.
[edit] Themes
Jia touches on a number of themes that have become increasingly relevant in China's recent economic development. In particular, the film suggests that China itself is evolving without humanism, wherein capitalism has taken advantage of the natural being of the people such that they must either overwork themselves, or else take up a life of crime in order to survive.
Jia references the doubts that many modern Chinese people hold about the benefits of the capitalistic system with no apparent ethical system.
To sing and to make love seem to be the only things that make life momentarily joyful, as far as the protagonists are concerned.
[edit] Realization and Aesthetics
Apparently it is a film raw made, shots are not aesthetically nice, the director is usually filming ugly textures and individuals that inhabit the world of China's suburbs. But it fits to the motivation, and until the point in which you begin to feel the same uneasiness the characters of the film are into. The composition is thoughtful, and so the use of colors, textures, lights.
The sound is never pleasant, beginning with Chinese pop songs that are a counterpart of our pop songs. And there is a ballad that comes more and more important through the film. The city artificial sound invades all spaces, leaving no intimacy. Motorcycles, cars, TV, radio, commercials... come as abundant as the air that they breath.
Editing is hectic, chaotic, scenes end abruptly,there are lots of ellipses which are explained later by a minimum of ingredients. It creates an apparently no cause-consequence film, which runs without pause until the end, following winds that may go into two opposite directions. Sometimes mother fortune will smile upon our fallen heroes, but usually their luck won't be used in a profitable way but to go neglectfully towards the end. As they tend to crash against the system.
[edit] External links
Feature films: Xiao Wu (1997) • Platform (2000) • Unknown Pleasures (2002) • The World (2004) • Still Life (2006) • East (2006) • Tattoo Age (2007) •
Short films: Xiao shan hui jia (1995) • Dudu (1996) • In Public (2001) •
