24 City - Jia Zhangke

24 City From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

24 City (Chinese: 二十四城记/二十四城記; literally: The Story of 24 City) is a 2008 film directed and cowritten by Chinese film-maker Jia Zhangke. The film follows three generations of characters in Chengdu (in the 1950s, the 1970s and the present) as a state-owned factory gives way to a modern apartment complex. The film was also known as The Story of 24 City during production.[1]

The apartment complex featured in the film is an actual development (also called "24 City") built on the former site of an airplane engine manufacturing facility.[2] Jia will also produce a documentary about the location.[3]

The film's narrative style is described by critics as a blend of fictive and documentary story-telling, and it consists of authentic interviews and fictive scenes delivered by actors (but presented in a documentary format).[4]

24 City made its debut shown in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.[5] Film Comment, official journal of the Film Society of Lincoln Center listed the film at the end of 2008 as the second-best unreleased (without U.S. theatrical release) film of the year.[6]

Reception

The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "moving elegy to modern-day China" and said of the film's documentary strain that it "prevails to simple, yet emotionally reverberating effect".[7][8]

Time also reviewed the film favorably: "the film interweaves the political overview — of a city institution being torn down to be replaced by commercial and residential buildings — with personal anecdotes that are poignant and charming."[9]

Screen International states "the latest chapter in Jia Zhangke's chronicles of modern Chinese history is certain to reinforce the director's status as an international arthouse icon."[4]

The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis gave the film a rave and stated "...the often amazing and intricately structured '24 City,' the latest from the Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke...shot in digital so sharp it looks hyper-real and projected digitally, the movie takes as its point of departure the closing of a state-owned munitions factory in southwest China... Mr. Jia is one of the most original filmmakers working today, creating movies about a country that seems like a sequel."[10]

Anthony Kaufman of IndieWIRE praised the film and states "Jia's masterful aesthetic remains consistent, mixing documentary and fiction with intriguing results."[11]

J. Hoberman of the Village Voice described the film as "so meaningfully framed that it could have been shot by Andy Warhol or Chantal Akerman",[12] and called the film as one of the stand-outs of this year's films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.[12]

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