Okay, but not great at all. It was a pretty big disappointment, actually, considering that I really liked Jia Zhang Ke's previous film "Unknown Pleasures". This film almost completely abandoned the stark minimalism of that film, instead attempting a Robert Altman-like ensemble piece on a grand scale, complete with sweeping long-take tracking shots. Unfortunately, none of the many story lines prove to be all that compelling. Nearly all of them revolve around young couples and suffer tremendously from stiff, unnatural dialogue and conventional melodrama, both of which are (unfortunate) new traits in Jia Zhang Ke's work. The sheer abundance of dialogue is immediately noticeable, as his previous film was nearly silent. It would be tempting to blame the newfound melodrama on the fact that this is Zhang Ke's first film to be produced with Chinese funding and the the amount of restriction which that entails, but I'm not sure that that's actually the case. I get the feeling that the talkiness and melodrama come rather from the fact that this is Zhang Ke's first film to be set in a major urban center, as opposed the remote, rural towns of his previous films. It's as if he assumes that city life is fast and melodramatic. The constant presence of cell phones in the film plays into this as well, although I don't think this notion is entirely off-base. Also part of this, I suppose, are the film's ill-advised animated sequences, which are amateurish and completely unnecessary, as well as the equally wrong-headed thumping pseudo-techno score, which further encroaches on the possibility for poetic minimalism (which, it should be said, is not completely absent in the film, but rather sidetracked almost as an afterthought).
The film itself is about a theme park which features replicas of worldwide landmarks, including the Great Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a miniature Manhattan, and, most prominently, the Eiffle Tower, or rather the young people who work there. It is clear to see from the film how this concept was appealing. At times images such as workers carrying water containers through a miniature Egypt (complete with camel) strike the appropriate, and affective, somewhat surreal tone. But sadly, for the most part it seems as if Jia Zhang Ke relied on the unique location too much, using it as a gimmick, and a crutch for the weak, cliché storytelling. Too often he relies on repetitive, obvious imagery, as well, such as a frequent shots of the replica Eiffle Tower against the Beijing skyline. Also present, I should mention, were pointless on-screen captions, dividing the film into meaningless sections. All and all the film was far from terrible though, and to it's credit it never quite followed through with the terrible situations it sometimes set up, and which I suspected. For example, a plot line involving immigrant Russian workers at the park was left mercifully underdeveloped, although not enough to avoid a bit of embarrassing melodrama. Still, it never got as bad as I was expecting it to, although that is a rather under-handed comment I know. The film's best moments tended to be when the story left the park and moved into the city itself, ironically enough, although it all really amounted to too little too late. Not even the nice (if not incredible) widescreen cinematography could save it from relative mediocrity. Looking back, it's funny and a bit sad to think that the film's best moments were it's opening ones, where Jia Zhang Ke's sense of the comedy of repetition (displayed so brilliantly in "Unknown Pleasues") were in full display.
The film itself is about a theme park which features replicas of worldwide landmarks, including the Great Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a miniature Manhattan, and, most prominently, the Eiffle Tower, or rather the young people who work there. It is clear to see from the film how this concept was appealing. At times images such as workers carrying water containers through a miniature Egypt (complete with camel) strike the appropriate, and affective, somewhat surreal tone. But sadly, for the most part it seems as if Jia Zhang Ke relied on the unique location too much, using it as a gimmick, and a crutch for the weak, cliché storytelling. Too often he relies on repetitive, obvious imagery, as well, such as a frequent shots of the replica Eiffle Tower against the Beijing skyline. Also present, I should mention, were pointless on-screen captions, dividing the film into meaningless sections. All and all the film was far from terrible though, and to it's credit it never quite followed through with the terrible situations it sometimes set up, and which I suspected. For example, a plot line involving immigrant Russian workers at the park was left mercifully underdeveloped, although not enough to avoid a bit of embarrassing melodrama. Still, it never got as bad as I was expecting it to, although that is a rather under-handed comment I know. The film's best moments tended to be when the story left the park and moved into the city itself, ironically enough, although it all really amounted to too little too late. Not even the nice (if not incredible) widescreen cinematography could save it from relative mediocrity. Looking back, it's funny and a bit sad to think that the film's best moments were it's opening ones, where Jia Zhang Ke's sense of the comedy of repetition (displayed so brilliantly in "Unknown Pleasues") were in full display.