THE WORLD
Directed & Written by: Jia Zhangke.
Produced by: Takio Yoshida, Shozo Ichiyama & Ren Zhonglun.
Director of Photography: Yu Likwai.
Edited by: Kong Jinlei.
Music by: Lim Giong.
Released by: Zeitgeist.
Language: Mandarin & Shanxi dialect with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: China. 139 min. Not Rated.
With: Zhao Tao, Chen Taishen, Jing Jue, Jiang Zhongwei, Huang Yiqun & Alla Chtcherbakova.

Director Jia Zhangke, whose previously three films had, until recently, been banned by the Chinese government, again focuses on young workers from the outskirts of China trying to pursue a better life. As compared to his previous work Unknown Pleasures, The World is much more accessible. Tao (Zhao Tao) works as a dancer at World Park, a real-life theme park in Beijing. Her boyfriend Taisheng (Chen Taishen), a security guard, her co-workers, and the park itself make up the extent of her universe. Guided by Zhangke's signature long takes and tracking shots of the park's backstage, it becomes apparent that for these employees, there is no more ironic a place than World Park, which is made up of scaled-down replicas of famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the pre-9/11 Manhattan skyline. (Tao, traveling around the “world” in an electronic monorail, calls out, "I'm going to India!") By night, Tao dances in a sari onstage, her expression lifeless as she herself becomes a living simulacrum.

Zhangke interweaves a number of subplots, all of which become steadily engrossing. Taisheng sells fake IDs on the side and finds his counterpart in Qun (Huang Yiqun), an ambitious woman who runs a sweatshop making designer knock-offs. And without being able to communicate in the other’s language, Tao forms a strong bond with Anna (Alla Chtcherbakova), a Russian dancer who has left behind her children.

Whenever Tao or Taisheng uses a cell phone (which will play an important role in the plot), the film morphs into a prototypical, animated sequence. And capturing the world in all of its askew loneliness, Zhangke pulls his camera wide on the park - revealing the pseudo-Eiffel Tower standing on top of deserted highways. In one startlingly beautiful shot, Tao stares up as a plane flies by in the sky while she remains standing in a concrete construction site; she has no likelihood of ever flying on a plane.

At 139 minutes, the director is unfortunately indulgent in terms of length, but to dismiss the film because of it would be wrong. Only after going through the idle, long stretches of understated longing, can the film's ending be appreciated. Marie Iida
July 1, 2005