Search - Unknown Pleasures on DVD

A classic.the pleasures it brings should not be unknown

peterkissme | beijing, china | 04/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"for those who are not familiar with chinese films AND china's reality, it is easy AND WRONG to regard crouching tigers, hidden dragon, flying daggers, and hero as "good" or "representitive" of china's film industry. in fact, they received largely mockery besides admiration for their scenaries and music--to verify this, simply read some online bbs;). compared with jia zhangke's movies, these movies are less than chewing gums.

for chinese people, jia zhangke's 3 major films --xiaowu �¬*�, unknown pleasures "Cç--y, platform â‹`ä) are the best they've had for years. the unknown pleasures of watching them --repeatedly, if the guessing is right--are great. jia's 4th major movie, "the world" is to be shown 5 days from now,on april 9, 2005, the first of his movies granted a screen in public,and is also likely to be genuinely loved and deservedly acclaimed. i can't wait to buy a ticket ;)

there are some english artilces on him and his films. there will be more. i personally think his achievement has shadowed zhang yimou,jiang wen, and gu changwei(director of peacock) --a good thing, since we all believe in competition raising the standards.

as to "unknown pleasures", i can flag the standard words like "classic", "heart-renching", "deeply moving", "five-star", "2 thumbs up" etc. etc. but for me, i like to think of it, and his other movies, as something i have been looking for, found, and will hold to. The pleasures, yes. Unknown? A pity."

A couple of corrections

Lisa Brackmann | Venice, CA USA | 10/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Several reviewers in their otherwise thoughtful summaries misrepresented the location of this film. It's not set in Shanghai or Beijing, but in a town in Shanxi Province (I'm pretty sure it was Datong).

Provincial Shanxi is a very different thing from Shanghai or Beijing, both of which are huge, world cities with strong cosmopolitan elements - far from the closed, limited environment depicted in this film. Part of the dilemma of these kids is that there isn't much for them to do in a provincial town in Shanxi, which from the look of it has missed out on China's "economic miracle."

Anyway, this is the second of Jia Zhangke's films that I've seen, and though I thought there were a few too many lengthy shots of Xiao Ji wrestling with his motorcycle, it's well-worth your time if you want to gain some insight into China in transition. Dramatically I found it to be a much stronger film than PLATFORM, which is also really interesting for the sociological insight, but for me was difficult to follow - too many characters who were not clearly drawn and whose stories lacked dramatic tension. The characters in UNKNOWN PLEASURES are recognizable; their stories, while not particularly uplifting or optimistic, are real and poignant.

I'd watch this one in a double-bill with BLIND SHAFT (excellent "film noir meets documentary realism"), and then I'd go play with kittens and puppies to cheer myself up."