Unknown Pleasures

Jia Zhang-Ke's third feature is a sequel of sorts to his epic PLATFORM (2000), which followed a group of provincial Chinese actors through the uncertainty of the post-Mao decade. The year is now 2001, and the future looks brighter: China is about to enter the WTO, Beijing is seriously being considered as the site of the 2008 Summer Oympics, and a new superhighway is about join the northern industrial city of Datong with Beijing. But even with so many reasons to be cheerful, Jia finds the next generation of Chinese youth even less hopeful about their future. Ignoring the radio spots urging citizens to play the lottery and "make their leisure time pay," 21-year-old Xia...