Unknown Pleasures (2002)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There's a scene a bit over half way through that encapsulates the magic of this film and of Zhangke Jia in general. Having been humiliated in the nightclub at the hands of Qiao San, Qiao Ji, one of the two main protagonists, is seen returning to the nightclub with a gang in tow armed with sticks and clubs. His friend Bin Bin sees this and forcibly puts a stop to it. A fight occurs resulting Bin Bin getting a nasty slug to the head. Off screen a TV can be heard. A large group are standing around watching a live broadcast announcing the host city winner for the 2008 Olympics. The two boys are distracted by this and begin watching. Just before Beijing is announced as winner they glance at each other. As the crowd erupts in delight the two boys watch on with no reaction. This kind of transformation (in this case form the personal to the global) is continually taking place throughout the film. Just when most films would move on to the next scene something always happens to transform a scene giving the narrative a layer of complexity that most films don't get close to. I do understand why some people find this style of film making boring. The scenes are long, there's not capital 'D' drama going on but if you like films a bit closer to reality then there's a lot of pleasure to be had here.

I greatly enjoy most Chinese films not to mention films in general. This film I just don't get. I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it. I resumed watching the next day at the point I last remembered seeing. When the end unexpectedly reared its ugly head, I wished that all the characters (vs the actors of course) had died in the movie and put us all out of our misery. These characters had nothing about them to get me interested in them as characters or in their story. They were pure and simple... bored and very boring. Other than a little eye candy in the form of the female lead (who was nonetheless also without any real interest), I saw nothing worth spending the two hours I did with this film. If you have absolutely no inner resources, perhaps you will identify with these characters. Otherwise I'd run when you see the DVD cover.

I saw this film at the IFP LA Film Festival on June 16, 2003. It started out pretty well, but became aimless and sort of meandered. I couldn't root for any of the characters. The background of economically depressed mainland China is interesting, but only for a while. After half an hour, I wanted characters I cared about, but this movie didn't have any. It's not that the young actors weren't talented, it's just that the script was anti-climatic and didn't leave me wanting more, I just wanted the movie to end.

Unknown Pleasures is the first Jia Zhang Ke film that I have seen and it is excellent. The setting is a town in the north of China, but it could be anywhere in the developing world - India, Argentina or South Africa, for example - where neo liberal economic policies have benefitted the urban elite, but created dislocation for millions of others. The director undoubtedly has a deep social conscience.The film focuses on several young people, members of China's "new new" generation. As the films progresses, we see what the new world order offers them - US currency, American pop culture, the 2008 Olympics, new super highways - contrasted with the reality - few opportunities for young people, laid off state factory workers and a general degradation of moral values. The message is clear: the new world order offers common people everything in return for giving up traditional ways of life, but actually delivers little of substance. As Bin Bin puts it when he finds out that his girlfriend is going to Beijing to study international trade: "WTO is nothing. Just a trick to make some cash."The social realist style - it has a bit of a documentary look to it - and the pop song which the film is named after and which features prominently in it (Ren Xiao Yao - the lyrics speak about youth alienation, particularly a desire for freedom and pleasure) also provide a cutting edge look and feel. The song is emotive and will strike a chord with those who like explorations of youth alienation.However, the film, as befits the political and artistic climate in China, is very subtle and understated, and may escape those who have little knowledge of current affairs in China or an insensitivity to the economic and social dislocation that is taking place outside the big cities (this is not a good date movie for the corporate Western expat and his urban Chinese girlfriend who measure progress by the number of new condos and Western restaurants in Shanghai).This is great indie filmmaking, though, and I would particularly recommend it to socially and politically aware twenty and thirtysomethings who like artistic expression that is intelligent, socially conscientious and cutting edge.