Jia Zhang-Ke - Ren xiao yao ('Unknown Pleasures') (2002)

One of the most exciting filmmaking talents to have emerged from China in recent years, Jia keeps the dramatic focus tightly reigned in this digitally shot, absorbing and searing portrait of contemporary China. Artificial Eye




Jia Zhang-Ke's new film follows the lives of two 19 year old frinds, Bin Bin & Xiao Ji who live in the provincial Chinese city of Datong. Disaffected and without jobs or ambition they pass their days wandering around town on their motorbikes, hanging out at the smoky pool hall, and dreaming of girls and escape. Around them, China is changing; the television informs them of their nation's rapidly developing political and economic role in the world and the steady encroachment of globalisation. Artificial Eye




UNKNOWN PLEASURES follows two 19-year olds, Bin Bin and Xiao, as they wander the streets and hang out in pool halls, dance clubs and karaoke bars looking for excitement. Sparks fly when Xiao Ji meets a beautiful dancer, and Bin Bin pursues romance with a young student. Taking a cue from American crime movies, the temptation of easy money becomes too alluring and in a final attempt to break free, Xiao Ji and Bin Bin embark on half-baked plan to rob a bank. New Yorker Video




A harrowing account of disillusioned young people living in China, beautifully photographed by famed cinematographer Yu Lik-wai, UNKNOWN PLEASURES cements Zhang-ke's reputation as one of China's most important filmmakers. New Yorker Video




Restless and unemployed teenaged best friends Xiao Ji and Bin Bin spend their time wandering around on motorbikes and hanging out at the pool hall. Sparks fly however, when Xiao Ji meets the beautiful dancer Qiao Qiao, and Bin Bin pursues a romance with a young studentS but without hope love doesn't prevail and desperation sets in. New Yorker Video




Taking a cue from American crime movies, the temptation of easy money becomes too difficult to resist and in a final attempt to break free from their day-to-day suburban life , Xiao Ji and Bin Bin embark on half-baked plan to rob a bank. New Yorker Video




Two unemployed slackers, neither with job prospects nor motivation, hang out in sheltered town in China trying to make sense of their aimless and uncertain futures. As youths, they struggle for individual freedom and the social responsibility that comes along with it. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0318025/plotsummary)




Unknown Pleasures is an intelligently conceived, visually austere, and understatedly humorous, yet profoundly incisive and relevant contemporary chronicle of cultural disconnection, social disparity, and the economic upheaval of encroaching globalization. Incorporating real-life current events in China during the year 2001 with the fictional (but culturally representational) lives of the post 1980 generation - what Jia calls the "birth control generation" after China's aggressive, "one child" population control campaign during the 1970s - the filmmaker captures the generation's life-long sense of isolation (resulting from a government policy that essentially denied them of siblings) that became more acutely palpable during their maturation and adulthood as the nation slowly shifts from insular, outmoded (and largely protected) state-run industries towards a dynamic global economy predicated on competitive trade and technological competence. Strictly Film School




The alienating culture clash is further reflected in the implicit dichotomy of the news headlines being presented in both the nation's mixed message international policies: China's conciliatory tone towards as the nation gains admission into the World Trade Organization and diplomatic goodwill in Beijing's selection as the host site for the 2008 Olympics that sharply contrasts with the escalating political antagonism caused by the collision of an American and a Chinese aircraft over sovereign airspace; and domestic affairs: the heralded completion of the Beijing-Datong Bridge that nationally illustrates the symbolic unity of two economically and socially disparate cities that is contrasted by a disgruntled laid off worker's act of sabotage against the state in the bombing of a factory. In the end, it is this muddled confluence of cultural estrangement and intrinsic desire to transcend irreconcilable human reality that inevitably defines the characters' unarticulated longing and corrupted Taoist philosophy, achieving not an appreciation for the simple joys of everyday life as taught in the writings of Zhuangzi, but a vacuous trivialization of life purpose and justified aimless hedonism - the misguided search for fleeting, unknown pleasures that define a complacent, and ultimately lost generation. Strictly Film School









His highly acclaimed previous works (Xiao Wu [1998]; Platform [2000]; and Unknown Pleasures [2002]) were all made without the permission of the Chinese government. This lack of state approval meant that, even as Jia's works scooped up awards at major festivals abroad, they could not be shown publicly in his home country, and as a consequence he has long been counted among the sizable ranks of China's “underground” filmmakers. Senses of Cinema