Review of The World (2004) by Zhou F — 16 Jun 2005
A film very unlike most films, zhang ke jia's [i]the world,[/i] which premiered at the venice film festival last year and went on to the toronto, new york, and london film fests, is a beautiful and powerful film without being obvious. in fact, it's subtle almost to a fault in that it is not an easy film to access for most audiences on this side of the pacific.
Most of the film takes place at a theme park called "the world" on the outskirts of beijing designed around scaled representations of the world's famous landmarks such as the eiffel tower or the leaning tower of pisa. the site is seen here not from the visitors' point of view but through the eyes of a few of its staff who are lonely people that communicate poorly, are disillusioned with life, and glitter for the tourists but are dull and restricted when not "on". we meet, among others, a pretty young dancer named tao and a security guard named taisheng who is fond of her but not of personal commitment.
[i]the world[/i] is a rather long film (the cut I saw was over 140 minutes) but is well worth it if you are the least bit interested in modern chinese culture and the social changes that are occuring in this ever-growing country.
This review of The World (2004) was written by Zhou F on 16 Jun 2005.
The World has generally received positive reviews.
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