Original Title: 二十四城记
Director: Jia Zhang Ke
Runtime: 112 mins
Country: China
Language: Mandarin, Sichuanese, Shanghainese with English Subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis

The film lays out a group portrait of eight characters whose lives are interconnected by a state-owned military airplane engine manufacturing facility in Chengdu that is on the brink of demolition, to make way for a sprawling luxury apartment complex.

In 24 City, Jia Zhangke interrogates the verity of China’s ‘miraculous’ economic progress by presenting scenes of demolition and ruin. Viewers are confronted with the methodical dismantling of the once-prosperous factory, using the dilapidated structure as an elegiacal metonymy for the ramifications of Mao’s Reform Era policies on the working class. Carefully framed compositions and trompe l’oeil camera movements are accompanied by select quotations from poets Yeats, Ouyang Jiahe, and Wan Xia, crafting a haunting picture of individuals whose lives melt into the larger history of the nation.

This screening is part of the programme 6 Films by Jia Zhang Ke. For more screenings, please click here. 

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