Jia Zhangke
9 titles · global slow cinema
China's transformation filmed from the provinces while it happens. Jia's people are demolition workers, dancers, migrants — left behind by a boom narrated elsewhere. Buildings come down mid-shot. The melancholy is documentary in origin, not stylistic.
Signature
- Real demolition and construction as location and as clock.
- Pop songs and state broadcasts marking the year precisely.
- Long takes, wide frames, characters small against infrastructure.
- Occasional unannounced surrealism — a UFO, a building taking off.
Ash Is Purest White
Mountains May Depart
Still Life
Pickpocket
Platform
The World
Unknown Pleasures
Caught by the Tides
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