Director aims lens at China's new generation

Last year was very distinctive for both director Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯) and his native China. Beijing was chosen to be the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games. China entered the WTO. A collision between Chinese and US military planes took place over the island of Hainan. In the north, a jobless man blew up a factory dormitory and in the south a notorious bank robber became a national idol among many youngsters shortly before being executed.

"That year, reality was more theatrical than most films," said Jia, talking about his Cannes competition film Unknown Pleasure (任逍遙).

In the film, these actual events serve as the background for the stories of three aimless young characters in the remote provincial town of Tatung. A reflection on China in the wake of modernization, the subject matter is nothing new to Chinese films. But Jia, 32, offers a fresh and distinctive style. Using his camera to poetically observe people and reveal their humanity, his three most acclaimed works have made his talent recognized internationally. Unknown Pleasure, which was produced by a Chinese-Japanese team with Japanese, French and Korean financing, was the only Chinese-language film competing at this year's Cannes Festival.

The film project began as a documentary shooting in Tatung, Shanxi Province, Jai said. "At first it was the bleak and lonely buildings that attracted me. When I saw the streets filled with lonely, directionless people, I became interested in them," Jia said at a press conference last week.

According to Jia, because of Beijing's one-child population control policy, "they have no brothers and sisters, and often feel lonely."

Unknown Pleasure, pronounced "ren xiao yao" in Mandarin, tells a tale of solitude. Jobless slackers Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong, 吳京) and Bin Bin (Zhao Wei-wei, 趙維威) wander the streets near the city's recreation district. Xiao Ji has a crush on pretty dancer Qiao Qiao (Zhao Tao, 趙濤) who performs promotional shows for Mongolian King Liquor. The fact that she has a gangster boyfriend doesn't bothering Xiao Ji. Bin Bin likes watching VCDs with his girlfriend, holding hands while singing hit karaoke tune Ren Xiao Yao, a Taiwanese pop song. The girlfriend is soon to attend Beijing University to study international trade. Bin Bin's mom is pushing him to join the army for a better future. A new highway is being built to shorten the distance between Tatung and Beijing. While everyone is pursuing happiness, Xiao Ji and Bin Bin are also ready for quick money.

"I was born in 1970 at the end of the Cultural Revolution when China was beginning to develop. But for the new generation, the development is nothing new. A new way of living and new values are available and have been spread fast by the media. Yet for a lot of people, the change in living conditions has been much slower than national development. This expanding gap created a lot of pressure ... on these young people," Jia said.

Having had previous films screen at both the Berlin Film Festival, (Xiao Wu, 1997) and the Venice Film Festival, (Platform, 2000), Jia this time makes a step forward to Cannes, competing for the Palm d'Or. But his film style remains the same.

Unknown Pleasure relies more on images than plot. Jia and cinematographer Yu Lik-wai (余力為), also a Hong Kong filmmaker, used digital camerawork to present an indifferent and nihilistic world where the TV and radio are constantly advertising the lottery and broadcasting propaganda about Falun Gong or Beijing's Olympic bid.