Unknown Pleasures

Movie: Unknown Pleasures (Ren xiao yao)
Language: Mandarin
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Zhang Ke Jia
Year: 2002
Watched on: 29 May 2005
Reviews:

Chandrakanth: *** (3/5)

Two 19 year old friends BinBin (Zhao Wei Wei) and Xiao Ji (Wy Qiong) who are heavily influenced by American culture, hang around in a Chinese city with out any job or aim. At a local theatre, Xio Ji gets attracted to an aspiring actress Qiao Qiao (Zhao Tao). Qiao Qiao has a boyfriend who is a gangster. Xio Ji pursues her and succeeds to take her out for a date, but geats beaten up by gangsters goons. Bin Bin also has a girlfriend, Yuan Yuan (Zhou Qing Feng) who is studying and aspires to study international trading. Bin Bin considers joining the Army, buta preliminary blood test reveals that he has hepatitis. Desperate for money and something to do, Bin Bin and Xiao Ji concoct a crazy plan of looting a bank. The narrative is slow and not much happens throughout. Director Jia Zhang-Ke uses a kind of repetition technique to emphasize certain points (Xiao Ji getting repeatedly slapped, Qiao Qiao being repeatedly slapped and pushed back by her mobster boyfriend and Xiao Ji repeatedly attempts to pull his bike through ). The film also shows the living conditions of people in Chinaand the confused, angry and purposeless youth of birth control generation. Director Jia Zhang-Ke has used digital video to improve authenticity by giving a documentary kind of touch.

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