The World

C+

Directed by Jia Zhang Ke

Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke rose to prominence on the world of film after directing a number of independent films outside the confines of state control in his native country. Most of these films, which were mostly concerned with the plight of the working class in an economically emergent China, were unsurprisingly banned by the Chinese government which has never been too keen on the country's filmmakers developing an "indie" scene operating beyond the reach of the SARFT. "The World," however, was something of a homecoming for Jia Zhang Ke since it marks the first time he was allowed to shoot one of his films in China with the (relative) blessing of the SARFT and the Chinese government. The end result, although laudable just by the fact that Zhang Ke actually got it made, is a bit of a disappointment, suffering from a rather obvious lack of narrative thrust that leaves the film feeling frustratingly anecdotal.

Tao is a performer at a kitschy amusement park outside of Beijing where the world's most well known monuments, from the Eiffel Tower to the Pyramids of Giza, are recreated in miniature. Her boyfriend and security guard Taisheng also works at the Park and, along with Tao and the rest of the park's employees, enjoys a rather relaxed existence that nonetheless does not have "success" written all over it.

Truth be told, I was mightily impressed by Zhang Ke and crew's development of the amusement park, an attraction that is big and ambitious and gaudy in the way so many tourist attractions springing up around China are today. After the initial interest in Zhang's "world" subsides, however, the viewer is left with relatively little of substance to (chew on) for the remainder of the film. Indeed, the thorny relationship between protagnists Tao and Taisheng as they attempt to find a measure of satsifaction living together in the amusement park is probably the only plot element of interest but it isn't fleshed out nearly as mcuh as it should or could have been. Jia Zhang Ke has prided himsefl on making films that expose the proleterian ennui of China's massive emering middle class, a group trying desperately to get a piece of the "Chinese Dream," so to speak, embodied cleverly in "The World" by the amusement park, a fake, cheap reproduction of far away opulence. The irony isn't lost on the viewer and the director does a good job of delivering some biting social criticism that is nonetheless expertly hidden away in a seemingly innocuous story, a talent many filmmakers working in authoritarian countries seem to possess in spades. Despite Jia Zhang Ke obvious skill, there is still no escaping the fact that "The World" is a film that lacks the narrative substance to actually deliver a story that can adequately complement in social message.