THEME-PARK BLUES. The World, director Jia Zhangke’s film about the daily lives, loves, friendships, and disparate dreams of the twenty-somethings from China’s remote provinces who live and work at Beijing’s World Park, is screening October 22 as part of the Northwest Film Center’s Lens on China series. (Photo courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

From The Asian Reporter, V19, #41 (October 20, 2009), page 16.

Directed by Jia Zhangke

Produced by Office Kitano

Distributed by Zeitgeist Films

Showing October 22 at Portland’s Whitsell Auditorium

By Allison Voigts

I’m going to India," the pretty Chinese dancer tells a friend over the phone in Jia Zhangke’s film The World. In fact, the dancer (named Tao) is on her way to a miniature Chinese version of India, complete with Taj Mahal replica, located in Beijing’s World Park.

Like Disney’s Epcot Center, World Park re-creates major sites from all over the world, including the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Tao’s job is to enhance this atmosphere with live performances as a Hindu dancer, geisha, or any other role the setting calls for.

The World opens in the performers’ backstage dressing room before a grand song-and-dance show that resembles a Miss Universe pageant in which every contestant is Chinese. Tao, who is searching for a Band-Aid, walks through hallways crammed with colorful costumes and tiny rooms where jewel-bedecked men and women apply their makeup.

The crowded but intimate scene makes The World seem a bit like a documentary, a style Zhangke enjoys playing with (see review of 24 City, "Jia Zhangke seamlessly mixes fact with fiction in 24 City," February 10, 2009, at <www.asianreporter.com>). The pace of the film also recalls documentary rather than feature filmmaking, chock full of details and characters that say more about Zhangke’s opinions on globalization and urbanization than the storyline.

The setting is rife with opportunities for irony, and the director uses them to his full advantage with gorgeous shots comparing the artificial park world with the unattainable reality it represents. In one scene, Tao watches a low jet flying over the roof of a building and states that she doesn’t know anyone who has ever been on an airplane. Yet in another scene, she sits in the cockpit of a stationary plane meant to introduce visitors to World Park.

Nearly every character in the film longs for the freedom to escape, whether to Paris, Hong Kong, or Ulan Bator. Passports (which belong to the lucky few) are marvelled at and carefully guarded. But even those with the ability to see the world, such as the Russian dancers who join Tao’s company, travel as working slaves rather than tourists.

The plot that binds The World’s rambling 139 minutes together is Tao’s struggle for success and happiness in a world that cares very little about her. Despite the apparent glamour of her job, she lives in a decrepit dormitory with no space of her own. She has a sleazy boyfriend, Taisheng, who works as a security guard in the park. Her friends at the park are preoccupied with their own problems, mostly related to their own boyfriends.

Tao’s world, as colorful and exciting as it initially seems, becomes increasingly bleak. Taisheng wanders down the slow but predictable path to cheating on her, her colleagues move past her essentially by prostituting themselves, and her dream of making something of herself in the big city dies during the course of the movie.

Tao is uncompromisingly good, patient, and pure, which puts her in stark contrast to the male characters, whom the film portrays as weak-willed, obsessively jealous, and insecure. The exaggerated and unhealthy relationships in The World deepen its bitter impact, but they also contribute to the film’s lack of emotional depth. In the real world there is real happiness, so why not in The World too?

The World is screening as part of the Northwest Film Center’s Lens on China series. It plays at 7:00pm on Thursday, October 22 at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland. For more information, call (503) 221-1156 or visit <www.nwfilm.org>.