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| 24 CITY |
aka ER SHI SI CHENG JI
Year: 2008
USA: Cinema Guild
UK: New Wave Films
Cast: Joan Chen, Liping Lü, 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
Director: Jia Zhang-Ke
Countries: China
Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)
USA: 106 mins
UK: 107 mins
UK Certificate: U contains no material likely to offend or
harm
USA Release Date: 5 June 2009
USA DVD Release Date: 12 January 2010
UK Release Date: 30 April 2010 (Limited Release)
Movie
reviews
Official
US website
Official
UK website
Synopsis
Jia Zhang Ke, widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading
filmmakers, follows up his previous STILL LIFE with this seamless
mixture of fiction and documentary.
Shot in Chengdu, China before the earthquake, 24 CITY chronicles the
dramatic fall of a State-owned munitions factory and its conversion
into a luxury apartment complex. In a film both artfully composed
and rich in offbeat details, Jia weaves together the stories of
three generations of factory workers into a fascinating oral history
of China over the last 50 years, and a meditation on the great
physical and psychological changes transforming the country. The
history of one factory and its workers becomes a microcosm for the
entire history of China over the same period from the huge
sacrifices and personal upheavals of the early post-revolutionary
years to the alienation of today’s comparative prosperity.
The line between documentary and fiction blurs as interviews with
real workers and ex-workers are intercut with acted stories and
actual vignettes of people affected by the closure of the factory
and the construction of the apartment block 24 CITY.
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