Product Description Acclaimed director Jia Zhanke 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. .com One of the year's most highly praised pictures, Jia Zhangke's ravishing epic opens in a rush of color and sound. Here's young China in action, optimistic and bursting with life. First there's yelling (for a badly-needed Band-Aid), then music--gurgling synths atop a pan-ethnic beat--as the sequin and feather-bedecked performers of the "Five Continents" company take the stage of the real-life World Park. As the ads say, "See the world without ever leaving Beijing," and 106 of the globes major sites are recreated in miniature, like a third-scale Eiffel Tower and mini-Lower Manhattan--complete with Twin Towers. Doll-faced Tao (Tao Zhao), ever-present cell phone in hand, is at the center of the maelstrom. Her boyfriend, Taisheng (Taisheng Chen), is a security guard with a sideline in fake IDs (and infidelity). When some Russian guest workers join the troupe, Tao's increasingly insular world briefly expands. She and Anna (Alla Shcherbakova) don't speak the same language, but do what they can to communicate. Tao envies her new friends "freedom"--she's never been beyond China's borders--unaware that Anna's nomadic existence is by necessity rather than choice. When she finds that Anna has become an escort, Tao's world snaps back to its previous dimensions, ultimately shrinking down to nothing. The World is unambiguously ambitious, with elaborate dance sequences, animated text messages, and tragic subplots. Unlike 2000's Platform, Zhangke's fourth feature isn't set in the past or the provinces, but he surpasses that success with his finest--and most cynical--film to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
A**R
Correct location of the film is Shenzhen, not Beijing.
This review is a correction that may help search engines.The location of the movie is "Window of the World" park, in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is next to Hong Kong. Window of the World is just one of several OCT recreation complexes in Shenzhen, including two other amusement parks: "Happy Valley" and the Chinese Folk Village/Splendid China.The location is not Beijing, as listed in other reviews. Saying Window of the World is in Beijing is sort of like saying Cedar Point park (in Ohio) is in New Orleans.
T**A
Ensemble Drama in Beijing Theme Park: Realistic Slice of Life, Plus Very Very Pessimistic Outlook of Life
Newset film from Chinese director Zhang Ke Jia ('Platform' 'Unknown Pleasures') is, some say, most accessible one in his works. True, but the touch of the long film is still bleak and detached, going on and on with almost non-existent story about the workers in the eponymous theme park. Critics would admire the feel and perhaps appreciate its anti-globalization attitudes in it, but many viewers like me would find the film awfully pretentious and tedious. My impression happens to be the latter one (hence my lower rating). But of course, you might find the film and its realistic content differently.Anyway, I have never been to the place myself, but in the suburb of rapidly modernized city of Beijing, there really exists a theme park World Park, where you can see lots of miniature landmarks of the world such as The Eiffel Tower, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or The Taj Mahal. The catch phase of the place is `Visit the World without leaving Beijing.'In this small world lives Tao, young girl and dancer working in the theme park. She has a boy friend, the park's guard Taisheng, but `The World' introduces us to many other characters, all somehow trapped in this small-scale artificial `world.' With the film's ensemble fashion that strongly reminds us of Robert Altman, `The World' shows us the background of each character. One is from Russia, but most of them are from rural parts of the mainland China, and as Tao recollects, they all came to the big city with dreams.But in the bleak world of Zhang Ke Jia, dream means something that these characters never get, and as many viewers would notice, their lives keep going around the same course like the small monorail car that runs languidly around the theme park. Many things (mostly unhappy ones) happen to the people surrounding Tao, but the director often insists on the emotionally detached tone, making some of us wishing for twist and surprises. But in `The World,' for better or for worse, you don't see them, and you don't even see what you call character development because the story is already told before the film begins.Excuse me for my vague commentary about the story, but there is no way of summarizing it just like the case of `Short Cuts.' And `Short Cuts' is not my favorite film, which would explain my rather negative review. I just don't like long films (`The World' runs 140 minutes) and I don't like pessimistic films (as you expect from Zhang Ke Jia). I gave a try to this one, but couldn't bring myself to give it a second one.The film's realistic touch is definitely helped by digital camera and the actors' good acting, and the camera always captures the slice of ordinary life of the ordinary people, letting us see the inside of their hearts. Still, these days I'm getting tired of the attitudes of any director who is always looking for the negative aspects in the things surrounding us. And the film's very ending, of which meaning is still unclear to me, but of which shockingly cold touch is clearly intentional, is only the film's mystification of its theme, which is obvious from the beginning. The problem is, do we really need 140 minutes to know that? Or it is worth?
G**A
The 'Five Continents' theme park proves to be a whole world unto itself as dancers date guards and life goes on - at 1/3 scale!!
I found this film watchable, but it just seemed to be about a group of Chinese twenty-somethings in unremarkable daily situations working backstage (and onstage) at the 'Five Continents' theme park. One thing I did pick up on was the insidious slogan "see 'the World' in Beijing" which seemed to imply that there's no reason to ever leave and explore the life 'outside' China.Why think about going to the trouble of travelling to London, Paris, New York when the best each country has to offer has all been created for you right there (to sub-scale). And people in other countries think Disneyland is propaganda, at least they have a Fantasyland there instead of recreating the island of Manhattan WITH the World Trade Center (not to mention the 1/3 scale Eiffel Tower dominating the city skyline)!I can't entirely recommend the movie though the photography and some of the 'spectacle' dance moments are impressive. They definitely milked the mini-'Leaning Tower of Pisa' gag one time too many, but minimalists might enjoy this slice-of-life in a world where security guards can hook up with dancers, for better or worse.It also seemed ironic to me that the couple that was sparring for the entire film decides to get married, sort of an accident waiting to happen of you ask me. But maybe that was part of incongruity the director set up with the false expectations of a man-made world done to scale with the Beijing tourists exclaiming "Wow, that's so big" when what they're seeing is really just a partial scale recreation of London Bridge, etc.Of course, the main reason the Chinese government would want to re-create all the wonders of the world at home is to discourage applications for exit visa's (and the possible defections that could follow). The film does allude to the black market demand for fake visa's and ID but only minimally.A bit slowly paced overall considering it's 2 hour plus length, but worth a look for those curious about life inside China.
M**N
China in the World
It is a movie about modern China where mosaic of characters' interactions has been assembled on a landscape of The World Park presenting iconic landscapes from around a globe.
S**S
Great item
Essential viewing for anyone interested in Chinese film, as well as a great look at current Chinese culture.Highly recommended.
H**S
Jia Zhangke and the New China
This latest film from Jia Zhangke is quite his best - I thought that 24 CITY would be hard to beat, but this is even better. Finally, we have a young Chinese director who is showing us a different China - China in transition - not the China of some old dynastic period, but China today. He shows us the massive economic & cultural changes that taking place all over China - with the (sometimes) tragic human consequences. A remarkable director, a remarkable film.
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