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24 City
on release now
Jia Zhang Ke, widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading filmmakers, follows up his previous STILL LIFE with this seamless mixture of fiction and documentary.
Shot in Chengdu before the earthquake, 24 CITY chronicles the dramatic fall of a State-owned munitions factory and its conversion into a luxury high-rise apartment complex. In a film both artfully composed and rich in offbeat details, Jia weaves together the stories of three generations of factory workers into a fascinating oral history of China over the last 50 years, and a meditation on the great physical and psychological changes transforming the country. The history of one factory and its workers becomes a microcosm for the entire history of China over the same period from the huge sacrifices and personal upheavals of the early post-revolutionary years to the alienation of today’s comparitive prosperity.
The line between documentary and fiction blurs as interviews with real workers and ex-workers are intercut with acted stories and actual vignettes of people affected by the closure of the factory and the construction of the apartment block 24 CITY.
Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival
Shot in Chengdu before the earthquake, 24 CITY chronicles the dramatic fall of a State-owned munitions factory and its conversion into a luxury high-rise apartment complex. In a film both artfully composed and rich in offbeat details, Jia weaves together the stories of three generations of factory workers into a fascinating oral history of China over the last 50 years, and a meditation on the great physical and psychological changes transforming the country. The history of one factory and its workers becomes a microcosm for the entire history of China over the same period from the huge sacrifices and personal upheavals of the early post-revolutionary years to the alienation of today’s comparitive prosperity.
The line between documentary and fiction blurs as interviews with real workers and ex-workers are intercut with acted stories and actual vignettes of people affected by the closure of the factory and the construction of the apartment block 24 CITY.
Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival
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Jia Zhangke Director
Filmography Selected
Born in 1970 (Fengyang, Shanxi Province), Jia Zhangke studied painting, developed an interest in fiction, and in 1995 founded the Youth Experimental Film Group, for which he directed two award-winning videos.
He graduated in 1997 from the Beijing Film Academy, and his first feature, Xiao Wu (1998) was very successful at the Berlin, Nantes and Vancouver festivals. The following films Zhantai (Platform, 2000), and Ren xiao yao (Unknown Pleasures, 2002) were selected in competition respectively at Venice and Cannes. He established Xstream Pictures in 2003 in order to promote young talented directors from all over China. He directed Shijie (The World) in 2004 and his latest film Sanxia haoren (Still Life) received the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival 2006
Read an essay on Jia Zhangke by Kevin Lee in Senses of Cinema
Read an Interview on Jia Zhangke by Edmund Lee in Time Out Hong Kong
Jia Khangke on '24 City'
He graduated in 1997 from the Beijing Film Academy, and his first feature, Xiao Wu (1998) was very successful at the Berlin, Nantes and Vancouver festivals. The following films Zhantai (Platform, 2000), and Ren xiao yao (Unknown Pleasures, 2002) were selected in competition respectively at Venice and Cannes. He established Xstream Pictures in 2003 in order to promote young talented directors from all over China. He directed Shijie (The World) in 2004 and his latest film Sanxia haoren (Still Life) received the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival 2006
Read an essay on Jia Zhangke by Kevin Lee in Senses of Cinema
Read an Interview on Jia Zhangke by Edmund Lee in Time Out Hong Kong
Jia Khangke on '24 City'
Xiao Shan Goes Home (1995) short film.
Du Du (1995) short film.
Xiao Wu (1997)
Platform (Zhantai, 2000)
In Public (2001) short documentary.
Unknown Pleasures (Ren Xiao Yao, 2002)
The World (Shijie, 2004)
24 City (Er Shi Si Cheng Ji, 2008)
Du Du (1995) short film.
Xiao Wu (1997)
Platform (Zhantai, 2000)
In Public (2001) short documentary.
Unknown Pleasures (Ren Xiao Yao, 2002)
The World (Shijie, 2004)
24 City (Er Shi Si Cheng Ji, 2008)
CREW
JIA Zhangke - Director
Yongming ZHAI - Screenplay
Likwai YU - Cinematography
Yu WANG - Cinematography
Qiang LIU - Set Designer
Giong LIM - Music
Hanno YOSHIHIRO - Music
Xudong LIN - Film Editor
Jinlei KONG - Film Editor
Yang ZHANG - Sound
CAST
Joan CHEN - Little Flower
Lu LIPING - Hao Dali
Zhao TAO - Su Nax
JIA Zhangke - Director
Yongming ZHAI - Screenplay
Likwai YU - Cinematography
Yu WANG - Cinematography
Qiang LIU - Set Designer
Giong LIM - Music
Hanno YOSHIHIRO - Music
Xudong LIN - Film Editor
Jinlei KONG - Film Editor
Yang ZHANG - Sound
CAST
Joan CHEN - Little Flower
Lu LIPING - Hao Dali
Zhao TAO - Su Nax
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★★★★
Read the full review
Time Out Film of the Week
★★★★
Since his first film, ‘Xiao Wu’ in 1997, and with later works such as ‘Unknown Pleasures’ and ‘Still Life’, Jia Zhangke has built a reputation as a leading chronicler of a changing China. The 40-year-old filmmaker from Shanxi Province is an independent voice, popular with festivals and cinemas across the globe, who works on the borders between documentary and fiction
and communicates the shifting landscapes of his country through the most personal of stories.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Read the full review
Sight and Sound Film of the month -
"...the film is an elegiac visual symphony of carefully framed compositions, trompe l’oeil camera movements, posed portraits, internal rhymes and mysterious vignettes."
Tony Rayns Sight and Sound
Read the full review
★★★★
★★★★
'Jia is working at the border where fiction and nonfiction meet, which is where this fantastically surreal country itself seems to exist... One of the most original filmmakers working today'
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"One of the world's preeminent filmmakers. A masterful and moving portrait."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
"The planet's most excitingly original filmmaker."
- Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
A 'moving elegy to modern-day China
The Hollywood Reporter
'A masterly combination of fact and fiction...Jia once again humanises China's modern history and turns it into poetry'
Tony Rayns, London Film Festival Catalogue
“A deeply felt film…A bold dive into interior lives...
One of the saddest films I have seen for many years…heartrending…”
Read the full review
Time Out Film of the Week
★★★★
Since his first film, ‘Xiao Wu’ in 1997, and with later works such as ‘Unknown Pleasures’ and ‘Still Life’, Jia Zhangke has built a reputation as a leading chronicler of a changing China. The 40-year-old filmmaker from Shanxi Province is an independent voice, popular with festivals and cinemas across the globe, who works on the borders between documentary and fiction
and communicates the shifting landscapes of his country through the most personal of stories.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Read the full review
Sight and Sound Film of the month -
"...the film is an elegiac visual symphony of carefully framed compositions, trompe l’oeil camera movements, posed portraits, internal rhymes and mysterious vignettes."
Tony Rayns Sight and Sound
Read the full review
★★★★
“This extraordinary film...Superbly shot...Both relevant and resonant”
Derek Malcolm, The Evening Standard
★★★★
‘Slyly mixing elements of drama with documentary in a similar fashion to his previous Still Life, Jia applies a poetic, humanistic approach to grand historical change in this study of the genesis of a development of luxury flats in the Sichuan city of Chengdu.’
‘Poetic, humanistic... compelling.’
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
“This is nutrient-rich filmmaking – an attempt to distil the essence of an age from the inside, to cut through the white noise of emotional turmoil and uncover a deeper truth.
“Zhang Ke’s methods, that strange mingling of fact and fiction… are both singular and extraordinary.”
Matt Bochenski, Little White Lies
“A most sophisticated and revelatory approach to documenting recent Chinese history... every story is laced with heartbreaking pathos.”
Nick James, Sight & Sound
'Jia is working at the border where fiction and nonfiction meet, which is where this fantastically surreal country itself seems to exist... One of the most original filmmakers working today'
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"One of the world's preeminent filmmakers. A masterful and moving portrait."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
"The planet's most excitingly original filmmaker."
- Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
A 'moving elegy to modern-day China
The Hollywood Reporter
'A masterly combination of fact and fiction...Jia once again humanises China's modern history and turns it into poetry'
Tony Rayns, London Film Festival Catalogue