24 City
I have really only seen one other Jia Zhangke film, “Platform”. What struck me the most about the film was not actually the story (which I thought was rather cliché anyways) but the way the film was executed. Nostalgy for older times coupled with period music seems to be Jia’s trademark, and one of the nicest aspect of “24 City” is the way music is used to set the mood. It’s a matter of taste whether you find that boring and artificial, or rather subtle and beautiful.
There is one thing which bothers me about this mix of using real factory workers and actors. I have seen other reviews in which people disliked this mix because they couldn’t see who was an actor and who was a real interviewee. But honestly, I thought it was pretty obvious – you can see it in their physiognomy. Actual factory workers have much more worn-down faces and, more importantly, visibly rough hands. My parents, for instance, are a totally special case – they have those rough hands from working in factories and writer’s bumps on their fingers. (In fact, they even make fun of me for not having them.) Unless they help you with good make-up, I doubt it’s possible to act real as a factory worker, and in “24 City” they typically don’t.
A couple of years ago, I met a girl on the bus who was from the same city as Jia Zhangke. Her parents owned a factory and she loved Wong Kar-wai. Unsurprisingly, she absolutely hates Jia Zhangke’s films, which she thought were boring and utterly wrong. According to her, this is not the real China; but in Jia Zhangke’s defense, she is probably just as foreign to these people depicted in his films as I am, just in a different way.
I thought that “24 City” was interesting and beautiful in quite a memorable way, but its strange topic and execution make it a hard film to recommend.