Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Stoutor
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Robert_Woodward
Unknown Pleasures portrays Bin Bin and Xiao Ji, two young Chinese men living in the city of Datong, several hundred miles west of Beijing. Theirs is a city in transition; crowded streets and apartment blocks back onto building sites, weird landscapes of debris and raw materials. The growing commercialisation of Chinese society is readily apparent; in an early scene the duo attend a lurid road show promotion for alcoholic drinks. The television news that punctuates the film shows the changes and conflicts in China and the effect these are having across the world, from the controversial US spy plane crash to the award of the Olympic games for 2008.The two young protagonists are outsiders in their changing city. Bin Bin, newly unemployed, lives with his mother. Unwilling – then unable – to find new employment, he becomes increasingly despondent. His relationship with his girlfriend, Yuan Yuan, is lived out in front of a television screen: they rarely make eye contact. The cultural void in his life feels remarkably Western. Xiao Ji works for his father's garage business. Whilst Bin Bin becomes increasingly downcast, Xiao Ji dreamily pursues Xiao Wu, a dancer with the aforementioned road show, risking the anger of her volatile boyfriend.The overlapping stories of the two friends develop a common theme of loneliness and yearning on the fringes of a rapidly changing society. The sense of despair and malaise in their lives is powerfully conveyed, but the increasing aimlessness of their activities makes for slow and often difficult viewing. The final third of the film is particularly slow, with many drawn-out scenes. Despite this slackening of the pace, an unexpected twist at the end rams home the film's message that, along with the new freedoms in China, there is disenchantment with the new shape of society.
aslz
I don't recall where I read a favorable review of this art film, but if I did I would make sure I don't rent anything else they recommend. This film went nowhere. Two Chinese boys with no motivation. They don't take any risks really, and neither do the filmmakers. I was not left with any particular emotion or thought. Photographically it was OK. Perhaps the filmmaker was going for Bergman type effect of portraying emotional emptiness. And maybe its a cultural translation I'm not getting.Saw parts of China not seen before - the more urban dirty landscape.. So that was a plus. I liked the girl. Her character had the most um, character.
rich65536
Unknown Pleasures is a fantastic film, but not one I would recommend to my friends. When you're used to seeing Hollywood film-making, it's difficult to watch a Chinese movie that makes other indy films look glitzy.This is not a film that reaches out and grabs you. The camera keeps an unemotional distance from the characters at first, and only through the use of repetition and extended, unedited shots, does the filmmaker draw the viewer's attention to the subtle details which make this film so powerful.The main characters dream in a world of American pop-culture and pro-Chinese propaganda, but the camera captures their bleak existence with devastating realism. Through his rejection of western cinematic techniques, the director brings this film brilliantly to life. Yet, for this very reason, many viewers will find it boring.
Mozjoukine
Learning that this film is from the makers of the tedious PLATFORM is not encouraging and the new work has the same murky color and long, unedited shot coverage.However this one benefits from the stronger narrative elements - nihilistic kids turn to crime as their ambitions are thwarted, no mating with the traveling show chantoosie or becoming a Beijing soldier - along with the detailed account of joyless small town Datong Province life in decaying buildings where finding a US dollar in the liquor bottle the entertainers are plugging represents sudden fortune.In the line of BEIJING BASTARDS and less engaging that GE GE/ BROTHER which covers much the same ground, this still suggests that the Chinese cinema may be evolving a sub-surface layer of effective, critical entertainment.
