JIA on DVD

[arsaib4]

At last, one of the great films of this decade, PLATFORM, is coming out on DVD in the U.S. Directed by Jia Zhang-ke, who is arguably the most talented mainland Chinese filmmaker working today, the film is a meditation on time and space as it spans the tumultous 1980's when Mao's ideologies gave way to Western-style capitalism under Deng Xiao-Ping. Set in Jia's hometown of Fenyang, Platform depicts the lives of four performers in the Peasant Culture Group being run by the state and how they are affected. Jia beautifully captures the change, in all its glory and shame, with his subtle yet fully realized narrative, not to mention, by employing his now trademark medium-shots to accentuate the alienation felt by the society at large.

Platform never got an official commercial run in the U.S. It played in the NYFF back in 2000 after premiering at Venice the same year. There aren't many films who've been praised more in recent years, but other than a few screenings organized by theater groups in NYC, Platform remained out of public's eye. Artificial-Eye in the U.K. released the film on DVD a couple of years ago, and now it's being released here by New Yorker.

Platform will be released on DVD on August 16.

[oscar jubis]

I've watched my Artificial Eye disc several times. One of my favorite Asian films of the decade. But, because of Jia's trademark medium-shots (excellent observation on your part), I long for an opportunity to watch it at a theatre, where it can be fully appreciated. Jia's third film, Unknown Pleasures, is nearly as accomplished.

[arsaib4]

Yes, I agree with you comment regarding Unknown Pleasures. I think it was Kent Jones who said that "I just wish that it had as beautiful an arc as Xiao Wu or Platform." I'm not quite sure about the context of that comment, but to me Unknown Pleasures felt very intimate; its characters, its milieu... its scope is narrower (compared to Platform), thus it seems an even more focused study, but I do believe that the former is a more "important" film.

[arsaib4]

THE WORLD

Review

_____________________

*The film is now available on DVD from Zeitgeist Video.