Touch of Sin –
2013
Chinese cinema has become more mainstream in the West in recent years
, for years the West has indulged in the many films from Hong
Kong,Taiwan..
But as China becomes more in line with the West ,their film makers
are venturing into genres and stories which one may have not seen
twenty years ago.
Of course China is still a Communist country and some subjects in
film are still scrutinised heavily before films are allowed to be
screened in the region.
Director ,Writer Jia Zhangke is a student of the Beijing Film Academy
and one of China's new lights in Chinese cinema. . Jia flms have met
with critical praise not just in the East but in the West to.
Unlike Jia's previous works Touch of Sin ventures more into a
dynamic piece of cinema then he is known for. Even though the film is
actually based on four events which actually took place in modern day
China within the last two decades. .
Bonding the stories into one film is quite clever as though there is
no connection between them in reality Jia uses the geographical
borders of each of the stories locations to loosely attach one to the
other. These connections are quite vague and your have to be vigilant
to notice them.
Jia has based his film on four events which vary from violent crime ,
revenge , and the way large corporations make money at the expense of
their employees safety or working conditions.
Jia fuses these into a intriguing two hours which will shock and
dumbfound you , combined the stories have elements evident in many
Wuxia films of the 70's . Hence the title which shares a resemblance
to King Hu's classic 'A Touch of Zen'' ..
Though the film had been cleared for release in China in 2013 , it
then became known that the film was put on hold and Chinese media
where instructed not to comment or do interviews about the film.
The base line for all the four stories is how the working class of
China are persecuted and often treated as second class citizens by
the new elite rich which often have connections with organised crime.
Of course the subject matter is one that China does not want being
shown to it's cinema goers .
But with I bit of web browsing you find that the stories that the
film is based on are actually far worse then you have believe from
the film. Usually fact based dramas are often exaggerated to add
that bit of suspense to the proceedings , if anything Touch of Sin is
UN-exaggerated , probably so it had a chance to get a actual release
in the Mainland.
Touch of Sin is also a film which gives you a false comfort
,especially with the first story which for me offered some quite
comical moments before it unleashes it's fury at the screen , this
continues through out the next couple of stories ending with a
somewhat sad and depressing end story.
I am trying hard to to spoil the films content as any film which only
has a half hour or so to tell a story there's only so much that can
be done in film to portray that story.
But once you have viewed the film please look up the events that
inspired the film and your find that the reality is a far worse
scenario then you could imagine ..
The film is based on the events named below.
Hu
Wenhai (2001)
Zhou
Kehua (2004-2012)
Deng
Yujiao incident (2009, female)
Foxconn
suicides (2007-2013)
Touch of Sin is one of the must see films emerging
from China's Mainland , it's content may be violent and depressing at
times but it is a engaging film that mesmerises at times and then
shocks you the next.
Score out of Ten = 9
Review by Sertes Nake
Date December 2014.
