"24 City" (Ershisi Cheng Ji)
(Hong Kong - China)
An Xstream Pictures, Shanghai Film Group, China Resources (Holdings) Co. presentation, in association with Office Kitano, Bandai Visual, Bitters End, of an Xstream Pictures production. (International sales: MK2 Intl., Paris.) Produced by Jia Zhangke, Shozo Ichiyama, Wang Hong. Executive producers, Chow Keung, Ren Zhonglun, Tang Yong.

Directed by Jia Zhangke. Screenplay, Jia, Zhai Yongming.

With: Joan Chen, Lu Liping, Zhao Tao, Chen Jianbin, Jiang Shanshan, Chen Rui, Zhai Yongming, Yang Mengyue, Liu Xiangquan, Luo Gonghe.
Interviewees: He Xikun, Wang Zhiren, Guan Fengjiu, Hou Lijun, Zhao Gang.
(Mandarin, Shanghainese dialogue)

Following "Still Life" and "Useless," documentary and fictional artifice are combined ever more egregiously by Mainland helmer Jia Zhangke in "24 City," in which the demolition of a state-owned factory for a new development becomes a tool to reminisce on 50 years of modern Chinese history. Result is far more accessible than Jia's previous two pictures, with moments of genuine emotion by the real-life interviewees. But technique of interweaving name actors into the docu fabric smacks of auteurism for the sake of it, and pic says nothing new or revealing that hasn't been said in countless other movies and docus. Further fest play beckons.

Factory was set up in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, in 1958 to produce aviation engines, and became known as Factory 420, after its military security internal code number. Workers were shipped there from all over China, and, as one character notes, the place was virtually a self-contained town of its own, with its own living quarters, cinema, sports facilities, school and so on, with little contact with the local denizens of Chengdu.

Its fortunes declined during the '80s, when it switched to making consumer goods. Now it's being almost entirely demolished -- like many crumbling state-owned factories in China -- to make room for new apartment blocks, business centers and a theme park called 24 City.

History emerges through straight-to-camera interviews with nine characters. Some are genuine, like repairman He Xikun, who misses the old days of self-sufficiency and companionship, and movingly visits his old boss, now senile, after many years. Or Hou Lijun, who first moved there as a young girl with her mother and stayed for 14 years, and remembers the first layoffs as economic realities started to bite.

However, after the opening half-hour, and with no warning beyond the audience's ability to spot the faces, Jia and co-writer Zhai Yongming start including fictional characters played by known thesps. First up is Hao Dali (Lu Liping), who tells of her long journey there by boat; later is Gu Minhua (Joan Chen), from Shanghai, who tells of her first love affair there.

Finally, there's a TV presenter, Zhao Gang (Chen Jianbin), who inspects the model of the new development; and twentysomething Su Na (regular Jia muse, Zhao Tao), who went to school in Factory 420 and now works as a "shopper" for local rich women with no time to go to Hong Kong themselves. Other characters are played by no-names or members of Jia's crew.

Bottom line is that the scripted characters, though fitted out with plenty of wordage, end up saying much less -- and in an obviously actorly way -- about history and change than the real-life interviewees. Lu, a fine actress, comes off the best and most natural, though even she can't hide her thesping tics; weakest and showiest of all is Chen as a sassy Shanghainese now whiling away her time in an opera troupe, while Zhao's modern miss is little more than a cliche on legs.

Jia's reason for mixing real and fictional characters is that "as far as I'm concerned, history is always a blend of facts and imagination." But the effect is to elevate the former at the expense of the latter, and thus the whole emotional fabric of the film. The fact that the viewer is watching "a Jia Zhangke film" seems more important than the subject itself, and one moment, when Chen's character says she was dubbed "Little Flower" because she looked like that character in a Joan Chen movie, is pure film buffery at the service of nothing.

Strongest moments are when the pristine HD lensing by Hong Kong's Yu Lik-wai (a Jia regular) and Wang Yu, and warm string music by Yoshihiro Hanno, take over in montages showing the gradual dismantling of the factory. These immaculately composed, often painterly images of state-owned and modern commercial China say much more than the staged and scripted interviews.

Though rarely as grindingly slow as much of Jia's recent work, film would benefit from trimming by 15-20 minutes, with Zhao's section a prime candidate for excision.

Camera (color, HD), Yu Lik-wai, Wang Yu; editor, Lin Xudong, Kong Jinlei; music, Yoshihiro Hanno, Lim Giong; production designer, Liu Qiang; sound, Zhang Yang; assistant director, Han Jie. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 17, 2008. Running time: 112 MIN.
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/6119/1/

24 City (Er Shi Si Cheng Ji)
Dan Fainaru in Cannes

Dir. Jia Zhangke. China , 2008. 107 min.

The latest chapter in Jia Zhangke's chronicles of modern Chinese history is certain to reinforce the director's status as an international arthouse icon. Further exposure could come from the TV-friendly nature of 24 City's pseudo-documentary format. Consisting of five authentic interviews and four fictional monologues delivered by actors (but presented in a documentary format) it uses the removal of a large industrial complex from the centre of Chengdu, to be replaced by flashy new high-rise luxury apartments (24 City), as the departure point for an account of rapid-pace changes in China over the last half-century.

Purists may find it hard to accept this as an actual piece of history, baulking at the use of actors and fabricated testimonies. But fact and fiction are always inter-related and Jia's effort may well be regarded as a future source of information on the recent past of world's fastest-rising superpower.

The military equipment factory known variously as 420 (an army code name) or the Chengfa complex, was launched 60 years ago in a city called Shenyang and moved 10 years later to Chengdu. Starting with the official announcement, at the end of 2007, that the complex is about to be dismantled and relocated out of town, Jia's interviews (the authentic ones) take him to retired factory workers from its very early days, right up to the present generation. Through them, a large chunk of China's contemporary history is fleshed out and brought to screen in personal, clear and palpable terms.

They accepted national hardships as personal obligations to work harder and remain poor; they believed that nobody should miss a day's work. Their ingrained sense of economy and thrift would not allow them to throw away old tools. During military crises in Korea and Vietnam and the Cultural Revolution, people were moved around the country en masse, children left behind and lost on the way as their parents kept moving. Throughout it all, they bent their heads and submitted.

The Chengfa complex functioned for them as a very large family in which everyone pulled together for a common cause, and an entity which provided schools for the workers' children. Throughout, they displated a resilience that is rarely encountered now outside that part of the world.

The troubles of China are reflected in the ups and downs of the factory and the people working for it. The same goes for the gradual opening of economic and social restrictions and the penetration of Western influence throughout the country. This is all eloquently expressed not only in interviews but also through the changing aspects of the city, the composition of the soundtrack, the quick portraits of people on the street, and last but not least, in quotes from poets, not only Chinese but also Yeats.

The last four, and most dramatic, contributions come from actors, all of them performing well but still these are easily identifiable as performances, making them possibly less persuasive. Ironically, Joan Chen impersonates a worker known for her resemblance to movie star Joan Chen while Zhao Tao (a Jia staple) plays a young woman wheeling and dealing between Hong Kong and Chengdu who dreams of making enough money to put her hard-working parents in one of the "24 City" flats to be built on the site.

Superbly shot by two of China's leading cameramen, Yu Likwai (Jia's partner in the Xstream production company) and Wang Yu (Shouzhou River, Lost in Beijing), this picture may appeal to the mind more than it does to emotions. Jia purposely refrains from voicing any opinions here and its authenticity may be arguable, but if pure fiction is so often taken as historical testimony, why shouldn't half-fiction qualify for the same honours?

Production companies

Xstream Pictures

Shanghai Film Group Corporation

China Resources (Holdings) Co.

Office Kitano

Bandai Visual

Bitters End

Worldwide distribution

MK2

+ 33 1 44 67 30 11

Producers

Jia Zhangke

Shozo Ichiyama

Wang Hong

Screenplay

Jia Zhangke

Zhai Yongming

Director of photography

Yu Likwai

Wang Yu

Production designer

Liu Qiang

Editor

Lin Xudong

Kong Jinlai

Li Haiyang

Sound

Zhang Yang

Main cast:

Joan Chen

Lu Liping

Zhao Tao

Chen Jianbin

Interviewees

He Xikun

Wang Zhiren

Guan Fengjiu

Hou Lijun

Zhao Gang
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=38781