FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE WORLD
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
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