Modern China’s gradual shift from collectivism to
free-market economics forms the backbone of Jia Zhangke’s 24 City, a beguiling documentary/fiction hybrid in which the Still Life director examines the
transition of munitions manufacturing plant 420, located in Southwest China’s
Chengdu city, into a futuristic complex for commercial and residential businesses
as well as apartment high-rises. Zhang’s camera wanders through the empty
floors and corridors of 420 with a bemused, distant somberness reminiscent of
Antonioni, capturing a sense of detachment from the past that extends to its
nine interviews with former workers. The catch is that five of these chats are
scripted, having been constructed by Zhangke from real testimonies, a method
that isn’t always as seamless as the director would like it to be but
nonetheless furthers the presiding mood of internal and external disconnection.
24 City folds reality and
make-believe into one, most strikingly during an interview with a middle-aged
beauty – stymied, by fate’s unpredictable hand, from marrying – whose nickname,
“Little Bird,” stems from her resemblance to actress Joan Chen, which makes
sense considering that she’s played by the actress. Frustratingly, Zhangke’s
performers aren’t as compelling as his authentic subjects, but the complexity
of his postmodernist formal gambit nonetheless gets at something pressing: not
simply the intertwined relationship between people and environment, and the
inescapable influence of before on now, but also – via its TV-doc interview
cinematography, its use of pop songs, and its references to movies – the way in
which our relationship to history is deeply filtered through pop culture
fiction.
(2008 New York Film
Festival)
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