Summary: Acclaimed Chinese writer-director Jia Zhangke (PLATFORM, UNKNOWN PLEASURES) casts a compassionate eye on the daily loves, friendships and desperate dreams of the twenty-somethings from China’s remote provinces who come to live and work at Beijing’s World Park. A bizarre cross-cultural pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center, World Park features lavish shows presented amid scaled-down replicas of the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, St. Mark’s Square, the Pyramids and even the Twin Towers. From the sensational opening tracking shot of the young performer’s backstage quest for a Band-Aid to poetic flourishes of animation, clever use of text-messaging and a rapturous electronic score by frequent Hou Hsiao-Hsien musical collaborator Lim Giong (GOODBYE SOUTH GOODBYE, MILLENNIUM MAMBO), Jia pushes past the kitsch potential of this surreal setting—a real-life Beijing tourist destination. THE VILLAGE VOICE called Jia Zhangke "the world’s greatest filmmaker under forty," and THE WORLD is his funniest, most inventive and touching work to date.
World, The
(2005)
China
