Chinese director Jia Zhangke lets his characters vent their rage in latest film
In his latest social critique of the mainland, art house director Jia Zhangke finally lets his characters release the rage, writes Sue Green
When Jia Zhangke’s latest film, A Touch of Sin, was released, critics were shocked. What happened to the sedate, somewhat meditative pace of his earlier works? And why the extreme violence?
But for the 43-year-old director-scriptwriter, this was not so much what The Guardian described as “a stark departure from his usual contemplative tone”, as an inevitable outcome of the pressures his characters were under – pressures which, in the earlier films, they had controlled better. And, yes, the parallels with life in contemporary China are deliberate.
“I think the rapid economic development of China creates a lot of pressure in people’s daily lives and there are not good chances to solve this kind of problem,” Jia says through an interpreter at the Melbourne International Film Festival, which included A Touch of Sin in its programme.
“It is true this film is extremely violent compared to my old works, but in my old films the characters also lived under certain kinds of pressures but they… tolerated the pressure,” Jia says.
“The difference is the characters in this film used different ways to deal with the pressure that comes from life.
“I also talk about the gap between the rich and the poor; it has always been a topic in my films.”