BFI: Xiao Wu / Plaform / Unknown Pleasures

Yet another great edition from BFI Film Classics in Michael Berry's look at Jia Zhangke's hometown trilogy in Xiao Wu,Platform,Unknown Pleasures: Jia Zhangke's 'Hometown Trilogy' (2009). In Chapter 1 "Prelude: Trying to Get Back Home," Berry discusses Zhangke's background and his short film Xiao Shan Going Home and how it relates to the trilogy. In Chapter 2 "Xiao Wu," Berry analyzes the director's debut and his debt to Robert Bresson (The Pickpocket) and Vittorio Di Sica (The Bicycle Thieves) beyond the theme of thief/pickpocket: neo-realist aesthetic, non professional actors, and similar social backdrop of poverty during a major historical transition. It is interesting to note that he collaborated with his Japanese producer, because he had worked with Hisao-Hsien Hou, a Taiwanese director he respects and who also is indebted to Yasujiro Ozu. Both filmmakers employ some of his visual motifs in their films.  The second film in Chapter 3 "Platform," is given more space due to the scope of the film and its large themes about the historical changes China has gone through in the 70s and 80s. It is called a cinematic poem on historical change and a meditation on how subtle shifts in pop culture, politics and economics exert transformative powers on individuals on an epic scale. Then in Chapter 4 "Unknown Pleasures," Berry identifies several key elements such as the central positioning of money and material gain as well as the use pop culture and postmodern pastiche. In Chapter 6 "Coda: From Home to the World," Berry suggests that Zhangke's film The World offers a coda where the hometown (local) has been forsaken for the world (global). And the book closes with an interesting interview between author and director in Chapter 6 "Appendix: In Conversation with Jia Zhangke." Another thought provoking analysis of the formative films of one of the more fascinating contemporary Chinese film directors.