the other good jpgs were too spoiler-y
i would say that this film is actually a little bit too straightforward
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:16 (ten years ago) link
didn't have enough creativity, innovation or artistry? shame
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link
in its violence? (haven't seen) xp
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:20 (ten years ago) link
well i wouldn't want to spoil it for you, morbz!
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:20 (ten years ago) link
hes not the sort of director i would expect you to like
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:20 (ten years ago) link
re the maximalism discussion the other day
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:21 (ten years ago) link
i'm not always maximalist! especially with film. cf bresson's diary of a country priest
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:21 (ten years ago) link
Looking forward to it. Still Life one of my favorite movies of the last half decade.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:22 (ten years ago) link
diary of a country priest is a lot more agonized and compressed than jia tends to be
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:23 (ten years ago) link
yeah this was really strong. can we just jump into things that vaguely qualify as spoilers? like i will try not to spoil in case people are still clicking into this thread with reckless curiosity, but. when i am thinking about this since seeing it it's about the structure. i remember a half hour in thinking about how the subsequent depiction of the guy pictured above had retroactively made sense of how clumsily he had been tossing the tomato in the opening shot. that his kinda garrulousness & imprecision righted this strangely played scene. & the rest of the film is weighted with similar care and balance, i think - i'm pretty sure that some of what makes the last section (/chapter/w/e) so affecting is how we're primed for it, & what relief it seems to promise; we've had to steel for more violence, never avoided, just awkwardly delayed and then delivered, these flinching shots of it, & then we're in something that is suddenly operating in this incredibly gentle register (maybe not dissimilar to the middle section of hou's three times?, though maybe that's a lazy comparison). i wondered if the last section could, as a standalone thing, work as a pretty sobering dispatch, but i think some of its effect is tied up in the structure of the film.
i can see the arguments for it being too straightforward, sure. narratively it's pretty linear, i think it's that you're fairly claustrophobically entrapped in whichever thread it is pursuing while it happens.
i guess we can see which direction this thread goes in but the other things i thought about this were pretty simplistic reactions to the sorta modest dystopia it constructs of working in china. i don't know if it's still cause i erroneously think of jia as being intrinsically somewhat ~underground~ - which i'm aware he with various levels of cultural irony isn't - but each shot of this that testified to any significant investment in production really wowed me; plane landings, factory production lines, workers outside the factory. it seemed astonishingly bold, prominent.
― schlump, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:24 (ten years ago) link
give the word and I'll watch a Jia movie & report back. which one?
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:25 (ten years ago) link
the world?
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:25 (ten years ago) link
or maybe the one named after the joy division album
the world is the only other jia i've seen and it was good though probably WHOOSH'd over my 20 yr old self... been meaning to check out still life / unknown pleasures since forever
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:26 (ten years ago) link
the world is the reason i found myself at the chinese ethnic minority park in beijing one hot summer day. : |
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:27 (ten years ago) link
i feel like you would really like platform imago but it sorta sucks to not be able to see it at a cinema, it's a little long & is a pretty film but in a kinda spatial way probably ill-served by small screens
has anybody seen pickpocket? i've always meant to watch it
― schlump, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:28 (ten years ago) link
Platform (2000) is epic but may be hard to get hold of.
Alfred, Still Life was 2006 ('08 in US).
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:30 (ten years ago) link
morbs, this is also playing at lincoln plaza cinemas in case that's more convenient than IFC
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:31 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piIASNlqjq0
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:34 (ten years ago) link
as schlump said and David Lynch might, don't watch that fucking movie on YouTube.
(meh, unless it's impossible any other way i guess)
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:37 (ten years ago) link
I've got a computer with a large screen
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:39 (ten years ago) link
i've got a fast car
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:39 (ten years ago) link
*farts*
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:40 (ten years ago) link
You have 5 further minutes to complain while I grab a bite to eat and then it's movietime
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:40 (ten years ago) link
prepared to relax my standards in light of the positive attitude of anybody who is just like let me fix a snack before i sit down & watch a two & a half hour chinese period piece on youtube, pretty sure i delayed my more ideal & comfortable viewings for a long time
― schlump, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:42 (ten years ago) link
id suggest getting a k4r4g4rg4 invite and downloading the bluray rips of his recent films but enjoy the vhs quality 5th gen pyrotechnics if u must
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
its more real & truer to the spirit of life in an agrarian commune in podunks china 30 years ago, anyway
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:53 (ten years ago) link
i've only seen unknown pleasures and i remember loving it, lots of motorcycles on new highways in exurban hell iirc? at that time i was just getting into movies with long-duration shots and a lot of spatial exploration and respecting jonathan rosenbaum for whatever awful reason. i'm still into the kind of thing that gently lulls you to sleep basically, a note of urban discontent is ok as long as the soundtrack isn't too loud, i don't see a listing here for this but i wouldn't be surprised if it came for like four days in january or something, keeping my fingers crossed.
xp haha
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:56 (ten years ago) link
respecting jonathan rosenbaum for whatever awful reason
nah he's the best one
my stream has had a loading issue 8 minutes in but great so far. hopefully this is the last update for the next 2 and a bit hours
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 20:01 (ten years ago) link
no imago that is a long take
― schlump, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 20:01 (ten years ago) link
get blunted 2 fuq and enjoy the show imago lad http://i.imgur.com/ED9eRuO.gif
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link
Still Life is amazing
imago, some of jia's films are p cheap to buy in eg fopp, and are available to rent legit from lovefilm
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 20:13 (ten years ago) link
yeah pretty extraordinary
unformed immediate thoughts: moved from a fairly static first half to a crazy, delocated second. it became all about departures, arrivals, jarring cuts between hairstyles & band-members. the Culture Team literally and figuratively sailing away down the river, changing its name, heading even into the desert before turning around and going back. the fetishisation of movement, of trains, as promised early on, becomes a baffling and humbling world of missed connections
some wonderful shots. especially liked one early on as our bespectacled protagonist and his maybe-girlfriend have a conversation obscured by the corner of a building, each disappearing behind it & subsequently emerging in alternation. also loved the front-of-cab shots (arrivals, departures) and the increasingly allegorical style
the most haunting character obviously sanming - his central cameo crucial to the entire movie & practically made me cry as he walked off - although it is also noticeable how the two female leads respond to the pressures of both modernity & established creed - they're extremely sensitive to the double-pull, although it is zhong who follows the path (of what rapidly turns out to be exploitation, both by her buss and her commitment-shy boyfriend) furthest before reaching combustion point and disappearing
sanming of course the victim of china old and new, the servant to all masters
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:38 (ten years ago) link
mmmm sounds like some good weed!!
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:40 (ten years ago) link
o hush. also what ya got vs rosenbaum
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:41 (ten years ago) link
nice i hope u now go on to become ilx' maven of contemporary chinese cinemalord knows apart from taiwan i am not that well versed
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:57 (ten years ago) link
A MAVEN
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:32 (ten years ago) link
LJ PLEASE BECOME A MAVEN
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:33 (ten years ago) link
rosenbaum is fine, i just stopped caring
he retired
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:34 (ten years ago) link
oh yeah
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:35 (ten years ago) link
supreme film critic but i seldom read him now because.......it's on a blog
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:35 (ten years ago) link
his reader archive (along with camper and to some degree kehr) was my most important formative influence wrt film as a teenager
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:36 (ten years ago) link
he's the only film critic I'd say I trust. had my david thompson phase but now I regard him as more a very talkative fellow fan
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:37 (ten years ago) link
my mavenhood is limited to a very few topics, at least within an ILX context. probably only cricket
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:44 (ten years ago) link
and pizza
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:47 (ten years ago) link
you have a good work ethicyou could be a chinese contemporary cinema maven in maybe a fortnight of reasonably dedicated study
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:49 (ten years ago) link
i will be posting a trite opinion about the importance of 'springtime in a small town' on the 21st of october and i fully expect it to be given short shrift
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:50 (ten years ago) link
haha it's a thought
really though I have to be maven of my writing. I will however pledge to only watch contemporary Chinese movies for the next 6 months (at home - I want to see Gravity)
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:50 (ten years ago) link
good - we could use some contrary challopsing in the gravity thread
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:52 (ten years ago) link
finally released on DVD in a couple weeks
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 March 2014 21:32 (ten years ago) link
and blu-ray I hope?
― espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 March 2014 21:35 (ten years ago) link
My write-up, from PIX: http://centrifugue.blogspot.com/2014/04/cphpix-day-5-touch-of-sin-bastards-real.html
Liked it. But I knew I would. Loved how many stories was put into it, on the margins of the four main tales.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 11:29 (ten years ago) link
Godo review, Frederik.
This was as a whole terrific but the conventional moments -- the lovers discussing their future over tea; the effete boy and his prostitute girlfriend -- were a drag. The horse-beating scenes were among the more wrenching I've seen in years.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 00:18 (ten years ago) link
"the effete boy and his prostitute girlfriend"
That part of the story is absolute fire.
― xelab, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 00:23 (ten years ago) link
The brothel scenes and Party chic worked.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 00:33 (ten years ago) link
for anyone in/near DC, this is showing at the Freer Gallery in a couple of weeks, with Jia and Zhao Tao in attendance:
https://www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D109070385
― Aglet, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 21:31 (ten years ago) link
On netflix instant
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 22:35 (ten years ago) link
― Aglet, Wednesday, April 9, 2014 4:31 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Wednesday, April 9, 2014 5:35 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
film culture in a nutshell, folks.
― espring (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 23:11 (ten years ago) link
lol yeah.
in my defense i've written that date down and i'm gonna request that day off work to go.
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Thursday, 10 April 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
oh, i didn't mean it in a bad way.
― espring (amateurist), Thursday, 10 April 2014 01:33 (ten years ago) link
got tix for a screening of this next week, woohoo
― Stim McRaw (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 November 2014 17:23 (nine years ago) link
That is sweet and sick
― 龜, Friday, 14 November 2014 17:27 (nine years ago) link
dunno what the venue will be like, it's a new-ish cafe-bar-performance space and i'm told it's pretty compact but a chance to watch this on a decent-sized screen is v. welcome, Hull's not been great for foreign language movies the last few years
― Stim McRaw (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 November 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
This is definitely a big screen movie. God it is so shit Wessie side for these type of films, you have to travel to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds for foreign language movies. It is always too much train + bus action for my liking or finance.
― xelab, Friday, 14 November 2014 23:06 (nine years ago) link
I saw Platform at the end of the Chinese film fest - it was interestingly told, how Jia meshed both the personal lives of members of the company and the gradual shift of their repertoire. Change and more change. I was v tired that afternoon so didn't take it all in but I'd want to see it again anyway.
Fantastic thread, didn't know there was one for Touch of Sin, still one of the better films of the year.
I would say its still worth a watch on a DVD. You won't get be able to take in its look however it has a lot else to it.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 15 November 2014 10:11 (nine years ago) link
Touch of Sin was perhaps my number 1 film last year, would still go in a top 5 of the decade easily. Perhaps my favorite Jia.
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, 15 November 2014 16:39 (nine years ago) link
South Florida didn't get it until February so it's going in my best list.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 November 2014 16:42 (nine years ago) link
Very great film, but after watching The World I might prefer that one. Have the earlier trilogy on dvd on top of my tv-set.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 15 November 2014 16:55 (nine years ago) link
i really liked this
think the surround sound in the "cinema" may've been fucked? unless there's deliberate fuckery with the level of the dialogue in the Dahai section?
first thoughts have already been spoken upthread i think but i love how the film is structured as an accumulation of its parts, gaining a lot from their interrelations. and the final sequence was v. affecting.
also so much intertexuality happening
― maybes bakin' maybes (Noodle Vague), Friday, 21 November 2014 00:54 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfF7ZmKMUX0
This is kinda really bad haha
― 龜, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 13:10 (nine years ago) link
Good film.
I assume the duck killing was totally real but it looked relatively quick (I hope), but was the horse really being hit that badly?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 16 March 2015 23:10 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/iaD6uBa.jpg
― 龜, Monday, 27 April 2015 12:05 (eight years ago) link
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33059234
― 龜, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 11:00 (eight years ago) link
new one is a change of pace, more like Stella Dallas meets Giant, except with GoogleTranslate instead of oil
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 September 2015 03:07 (eight years ago) link
mountains may depart is fantastic
― 龜, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 04:56 (eight years ago) link
ooo
― crime breeze (schlump), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 05:07 (eight years ago) link
watched Xiao Wu tonight, it was v. good
― bonobo voyage (Noodle Vague), Monday, 12 October 2015 20:06 (eight years ago) link
http://shanghaiist.com/2016/01/15/orange_truck_overturns.php
http://i.imgur.com/kFdnuz0.jpg
― 龜, Tuesday, 19 January 2016 21:41 (eight years ago) link
watching MMD tomorrow
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 5 March 2016 21:26 (eight years ago) link
I quite liked it, but not as much as A Touch of Sin
― calzino, Saturday, 5 March 2016 21:39 (eight years ago) link
Lovely until the last chapter, in which Jia falters with the use of English.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 March 2016 19:41 (eight years ago) link
didn't bother me much
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 March 2016 19:52 (eight years ago) link
at least not as much as the way no directors but QT and the Coens seem worthy of a new thread for each film
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 March 2016 19:53 (eight years ago) link
Start it!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 March 2016 22:01 (eight years ago) link
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 7, 2016 2:41 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark
this was fine, and probably only resonates if you're someone with experience of ESL in the chinese community, and second-generation overseas chinese.
― 龜, Monday, 7 March 2016 22:21 (eight years ago) link
new one is accused of being "greatest hits" by some, i like it fine; wish i hadn't been exhausted.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 2 October 2018 14:16 (five years ago) link
predictably great and at times transcendent. your man's gun falling out of his pants while dancing to YMCA was 10/10
― devvvine, Saturday, 13 October 2018 12:18 (five years ago) link
i thought it was just ok
― 龜, Saturday, 13 October 2018 12:23 (five years ago) link
STILL LIFE getting a long-overdue Blu-ray release on December 1st: https://t.co/QDSt0wbJPn— Josh Martin (@MajorHints) October 30, 2020
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Friday, 30 October 2020 01:49 (three years ago) link
I like that post from morbs from two years ago, it's painful to think we will never hear from him in the film threads again
― Dan S, Friday, 30 October 2020 02:11 (three years ago) link
All of Jia’s films are worth watching imo. Ash Is Purest White is the one I love the most, but also A Touch of Sin. Still Life was interesting to me, I didn't really get it at the time and want to see it again. Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World - all great
― Dan S, Friday, 30 October 2020 02:13 (three years ago) link
I've seen five of his films and heard him speak at a retrospective. My favourite was The World, maybe it had a slightly more hopeful air than the others.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 30 October 2020 03:23 (three years ago) link
Our new poster for Jia Zhangke's SWIMMING OUT TILL THE SEA TURNS BLUE. Opens in theaters May 28. Exclusive trailer premiere @hyperallergic. https://t.co/eoheERX6B2 pic.twitter.com/ucK21B0CKq— Cinema Guild (@CinemaGuild) April 27, 2021
― calzino, Tuesday, 4 May 2021 19:15 (two years ago) link
<3
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, 4 May 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
Watched A Touch Of Sin tonight and am stilll thinking about it and trying to articulate something more than "it's a grind house version of Ascension. Liked it, did not love it but am willing to change my mind. Mountains May Depart is still the masterpiece.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 24 December 2023 08:06 (three months ago) link