The World may be Jia Zhangke's first state-sanctioned film, but it still portrays the same China I saw in Unknown Pleasures (the only other film of his I've seen to date), a China filled with poverty, migrant workers, and listless youth. The trick here is that it's shot in and around the World theme park in Beijing, which simulates the experience of travel without having to go anywhere, with airliner "rides" and smaller-scale monuments from around the world in front of which you can take your holiday snaps. The location adds an oddity to many scenes, and in a way makes the story more universal. It could happen anywhere, and seems to. But the bigger metaphor is that the characters are starved for travel, for achievement, for progress, but are stuck in place. But while I respect the premise, I'm not all that engaged in the stories of these park workers. Love affairs fraught with jealousy, a friend from home looking for work, a strange and kind of wonderful ending that's just a little too abrupt... It made ME listless. Oh well.

Real slow cinema

By invoking Tokyo Story, Zhangke underlines the fact that this is a movie about youths who have left their parents behind, as well as their home, roots, traditions and culture. And in search of what exactly? Nowadays kids are promised the whole world, but the ugly truth of it is that it's a world made of plastic, with fake vistas, no future, degrading jobs and loveless marriages. Somewhere out there beautiful people are wearing beautiful clothes in beautiful palaces drinking beautiful wine-- but you won't find them here. This is an absolutely fantastic film. Depressing, truthful stuff.