DVD Review: Jia Zhang-ke's Platform and Unknown Pleasures review
Jia Zhang-ke is one of the leading lights of contemporary Chinese cinema and a torch-bearer of the "Sixth Generation" of film directors in China. His two films - Platform and Unknown Pleasures - have attracted worldwide attention for tackling issues related to marginalized individuals in contemporary Chinese society where Communism and open market economy are striving to exist together.
In fact, these two films are part of a trilogy, which seem to have germinated in his mind from his observation of modern Chinese society. He was quoted as saying in an interview, "For so many years, the Chinese have never had their own identity. When you identified someone, you'd always put him in the context of his relationships to other people such as ‘˜He's so-and-so's friend or so-and-so's child.' But the fact is that he isn't himself."
Jia shot to fame with his brilliant debut film Pickpocket (Xiao Wu) in 1997 which he shot in 16 mm, stepping outside the official filmmaking system in China and drawing the ire of authorities. However, the film immediately attracted global attention and became widely accepted. After this film, he made Platform (Zhan Tai) in 2000 and Unknown Pleasures (Ren Xiao Yao) in 2002, all shot in his home province Shanxi. The main focus of these three films is lonely individuals who find themselves marginalized in society.
Like the pickpocket of his first film, the protagonists in Platform and Unknown Pleasures too live in the shadows, wastrels and drifters as they are in the eyes of the civil society. They are the people who do not have anything to do in life and live for the moment, seeking life's pleasures in ‘˜imported' stuff like pop music, bars, dance floors and intoxicants. These are the people who reflect a large section of Chinese youth who are dazzled by the changing lifestyle of modern China as opposed to the staid, Communist-regime-dictated society which existed till sometime back.
Both Platform and Unknown Pleasures seek to hold a mirror to Chinese society, reflecting on the dilemmas the young generation is facing without showing any signs of finding a way out of this lifestyle. Platform, described by some as Jia's most-ambitious film yet, is the story of a group of young musicians in the small, provincial town of Fenyang who are suddenly exposed to the world of pop music, long hair, privatization and co-habitation without marriage. With a run-time of 149 minutes, this film, made in Mandarin/Shanxi language, was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000. It is a comment on the country's transition from Communist socialism to open market economy. And it deserves accolades the way the topic has been handled.
Unknown Pleasures, nominated for the Palm d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, carries forward Jia's concerns about the Chinese society in transition, this time through two young men. A poignant yet witty comment on the new Chinese society, it depicts at a leisurely pace how the new generation is getting bifocal between choosing their careers and enjoying the suddenly-available pleasures of life. The referencing to how American influence (read capitalism) has impacted the life of the youth is a constant motif in this film.
The two films, viewed along with the first of the trilogy, make for a subtle study of the politics of change and its impact on the young generation. In fact, Jia pointedly refers to his first film to make sure that nobody misses that it is a trilogy by briefly showing in Unknown Pleasures, the pickpocket of his first film selling pirated DVDs of his first two films.
The DVDs come with segments such as About the Movie and About the Director, providing a background for anyone for whom it might be the first introduction to this brilliant Chinese filmmaker.
(Platform, Unknown Pleasures; NDTV Lumiere / Excel Home Videos; Rs 499 each)
