Unknown Pleasures

Zhoa Tao and Wu Qiong in Unknown Pleasures

My favorite of his films, Jia Zhangke's Unknown Pleasures, from 2002, chronicles the feckless adventures of two millennial teens in the northern Chinese city of Datong. Bin Bin (Zhao Weiwei) and Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong) are unemployed and disaffected. They watch TV, go to pool halls and discos, and generally hang out doing something close to nothing. Xiao Ji falls for a dancer and gangster's moll, Qiao Qiao (played by Zhangke's wife, muse, and collaborator, Zhao Tao), which causes him much misery. When Bin Bin is rejected by the army because he has contracted hepatitis, the two lads collaborate on a futile crime.

The balm like artifices of theater, music, dance, and film are contrasted throughout with the grim realities of life in Datong. China more closely resembles gangster capitalism than a socialist state in Zhangke's vision. While the economic gains of China post-Mao have helped its coastal regions, its hinterlands have lagged developmentally. Datong remains mired in poverty and decay. The crumbling infrastructure and and desolate apartment blocks that Zhangke picture underlie his characters' anomie. The arts seem to be the only outlet for his characters' to express their strivings for freedom and emotional release. Bin Bin acknowledges this when he compares his plight to the free rein enjoyed by the Monkey King, a hero of Chinese legend portrayed in cartoon form on the television. The use of music stresses the characters' desire to transcend their humdrum reality. Mr. Zhangke himself sings an aria in a not insignificant cameo. The finale offers us a caged (jail) bird singing.

The numerous video screens points towards not only the Western influences that help form the teens' rebellious pose, but also to the repressive nature of the Chinese authorities. A vomitous spew of state propaganda emits from the television. The film is set amidst the crackdown on the Falun Gong followers to which Bin Bin's mother belongs. 

Unknown Pleasures is a realistic film that occasionally bursts into satiric surrealism. Shot on digital video in 19 days, the film has a feel of vivid immediacy. Zhangke cuts from a fireworks display celebrating Beijing's landing of the 2008 Summer Olympics to a tonally somber shot of urban desolation. A diner scene featuring a discussion of Pulp Fiction ends with a whip pan and a cut to a dance floor that brims with energy and excitement. Despite its downbeat themes, Unknown Pleasures is an exhilarating movie. Ms. Tao's performance is not only a highlight of the film, but also one of the finest of our century.