Director: Jia Zhang-Ke
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 2.0
Yet another film about sad, disaffected youth, this time from China - to go along with the sad, disaffected American, French, Japanese and British kids - and the problems with the infestation of American culture in China (Tarantino, Coca Cola, cell phones and dance music are just four of the plagues). Although it is trying to say some different things than the other films in this genre (the 'bored teenager' type of films) and should be recognized for that - there's a deeper political and economical concern here, one that is concerned with foreign affairs (the Olympics) and terrorism (the Falun Gong) - those finer points are buried beneath more scenes of listless people who need some serious counseling and absence of a much larger purpose like the work of Tsai and Wong. I think it's time for filmmakers to try to travel to countries where the twentysomethings are not listless and thoroughly bored by life and film them instead. Imagine that: enthusiastic young people!
