Product Description

UNKNOWN PLEASURES follows two 19-year olds, Bin Bin and Xiao, as they wander the streets and hang out in pool halls, dance clubs and karaoke bars looking for excitement. Sparks fly when Xiao Ji meets a beautiful dancer, and Bin Bin pursues romance with a young student. Taking a cue from American crime movies, the temptation of easy money becomes too alluring and in a final attempt to break free, Xiao Ji and Bin Bin embark on half-baked plan to rob a bank.

A harrowing account of disillusioned young people living in China, beautifully photographed by famed cinematographer Yu Lik-wai, UNKNOWN PLEASURES cements Zhang-ke's reputation as one of China's most important filmmakers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63315 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 113 minutes

Customer Reviews

A couple of corrections
Several reviewers in their otherwise thoughtful summaries misrepresented the location of this film. It's not set in Shanghai or Beijing, but in a town in Shanxi Province (I'm pretty sure it was Datong).

Provincial Shanxi is a very different thing from Shanghai or Beijing, both of which are huge, world cities with strong cosmopolitan elements - far from the closed, limited environment depicted in this film. Part of the dilemma of these kids is that there isn't much for them to do in a provincial town in Shanxi, which from the look of it has missed out on China's "economic miracle."

Anyway, this is the second of Jia Zhangke's films that I've seen, and though I thought there were a few too many lengthy shots of Xiao Ji wrestling with his motorcycle, it's well-worth your time if you want to gain some insight into China in transition. Dramatically I found it to be a much stronger film than PLATFORM, which is also really interesting for the sociological insight, but for me was difficult to follow - too many characters who were not clearly drawn and whose stories lacked dramatic tension. The characters in UNKNOWN PLEASURES are recognizable; their stories, while not particularly uplifting or optimistic, are real and poignant.

I'd watch this one in a double-bill with BLIND SHAFT (excellent "film noir meets documentary realism"), and then I'd go play with kittens and puppies to cheer myself up.

a classic.the pleasures it brings should not be unknown
for those who are not familiar with chinese films AND china's reality, it is easy AND WRONG to regard crouching tigers, hidden dragon, flying daggers, and hero as "good" or "representitive" of china's film industry. in fact, they received largely mockery besides admiration for their scenaries and music--to verify this, simply read some online bbs;). compared with jia zhangke's movies, these movies are less than chewing gums.

for chinese people, jia zhangke's 3 major films --xiaowu ¬*, unknown pleasures "Cç--y, platform â‹`ä) are the best they've had for years. the unknown pleasures of watching them --repeatedly, if the guessing is right--are great. jia's 4th major movie, "the world" is to be shown 5 days from now,on april 9, 2005, the first of his movies granted a screen in public,and is also likely to be genuinely loved and deservedly acclaimed. i can't wait to buy a ticket ;)

there are some english artilces on him and his films. there will be more. i personally think his achievement has shadowed zhang yimou,jiang wen, and gu changwei(director of peacock) --a good thing, since we all believe in competition raising the standards.

as to "unknown pleasures", i can flag the standard words like "classic", "heart-renching", "deeply moving", "five-star", "2 thumbs up" etc. etc. but for me, i like to think of it, and his other movies, as something i have been looking for, found, and will hold to. The pleasures, yes. Unknown? A pity.

China is on the move, but the road is still long
That is a new wind finally blowing on China, in a way. The picture of these young Chinese in Beijing, growing up among enormous roadworks and closed-up factories is quite realistic. Some young people in this country that is growing so fast and transforming itself so deeply can only be bored somewhere, if they are not taken up by the movement, and some are definitely not. It no longer is the time of Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution. And it is not yet the time of entrepreneurial dynamism for everyone bringing benifits to everyone. We feel behind the scenes a strict social control in every neighborhood coming from some local « bureaucrats » or « representatives » of we do not exactly know what or who. There definitely is some moral order everywhere in this life, and ways to negociate it and do what one wants to do. Some evils do exist here and there, more or less known and tolerated : prostitution, alcoholism, demotivation, speculation, black market, and many other small activities that represent big money in a country where money is not running full blast in the pipes. But this film was shot and shown in China, and it is no propaganda about what China would like us to believe it is, or even about what China really is. It is a realistic, blunt, and slightly slow image of one section of China that points out real problems more than solutions. This realistic tone is new and it is also courageous in a country that is growing so fast to point out the negative points more than the progress being made. We can even think that in four years, for the Olympic Games they will surprise us, even if they have not yet solved two essential evils : the death penalty and democracy. But when realistic films can be shot and shown in a country, that country is on the right road.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU