This piece of Chinese movie is
dramatically thought provoking as it has a very thin line between fiction and
reality. Being masterfully directed by renowned Chinese director Zhanke Jia I believe there is nothing less you can
actually expect from it.
The plot is based on the demolishing
of a factory complex known as factory 420 in the city of Chengdu which has
stood there for over 50 years. The property is now set to build a luxury
apartment complex known as 24 City. The movie one by one introduces several
people panning through 3 generations who have had connections with the factory
420 in different ways for many decades. These people reveal uniquely different
stories from their lives surrounding the factory 420 and it ultimately leads to
the history of China and its recent economic revelations effect on its people.
Though 24 City has a strong
documentary type narrative and structure, it’s actually a movie made with real
actors and actresses. I’m certain that
for anyone who is not familiar with the cast might immediately have a belief that
the events that take place are certainly for real. However, it is not entirely
wrong either due to the fact that some strong elements of the movie do exists
for real and the director has very skillfully combined these fiction and nonfiction
elements in to a single storyline. Due to this nature 24 City is definitely a
movie that has the capacity to play with the viewers minds no matter in which
way you would like to interpret it, as a documentary or as a movie.
24 City has very best of cinematography
and storytelling structure. Every scene and story is built on certain theme
that differentiates with short verses mostly extracted from old and contemporary
poems. And each of these story segment has a wonderful feel of its own and its
certain that the viewers would connect with some stories more than others with relatively
close personal experiences of their own.
Even from a view point of a
person who has very less knowledge and experience of China and its people 24
City will open up new windows of realization. Its indeed is because of the
magical touch of Zhanke Jia.
Genre: Drama
"Er shi si cheng ji" (original title)
Director: Zhanke Jia
Rating: 4/5
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