Four characters represent different areas of China and different strata of contemporary society. Their four stories, drawn from reality, are characterized by drastic scenes of violence as a reaction to injury or as an expression of impotent rage in the face of injustice and disgraceful social phenomena, most often persistent corruption. World-renowned director Jia Zhang-Ke took award for Best Screenplay this year at Cannes.
Once every attempt to curb corruption in town and at the local mine has failed, and people’s anger and frustration have reached a boiling point, one of the miners, Dahai, decides to take action: he shoots all the culprits. Another worker, Santer, who travels the countryside on his motorcycle in search of work, discovers that his most powerful bargaining tool is a gun. A young spa receptionist spends endless hours fending off a rich client until – to her amazement – she discovers the ability to kill. Elsewhere, a village boy, humiliated wherever he finds work, cannot take it anymore and opts for an extreme solution. Four characters, four stories based on real events in a film that shocked Cannes with its scenes of violence – but it also earned the admiration of critics. According to its director, A Touch of Sin depicts social inequalities in contemporary China and looks at the growing tensions arising from the utter failure to stamp out corruption. At the same time, however, the author of the award-winning script believes that the increasingly frequent expressions of violent revenge are related not just to politics, but also to human nature, and they should be addressed as such.
133 min / Color, DCP
Director Jia Zhang-Ke
/ Screenplay Jia Zhang-Ke
/ Dir. of Photography Yu Lik-Wai
/ Music Lim Giong
/ Editor Matthieu Laclau, Lin Xudong
/ Producer Shozo Ichiyama
/ Production Xstream Pictures, Office Kitano, Shanghai Film Group Corporation
/ Cast Zhao Tao, Jiang Wu, Wang Baoqiang, Luo Lanshan
/ Contact mk2 Films
Jia Zhang-Ke (b. 1970, Fenyang, China) grew up in a resettled family in a small town in the northern province of Shanxi. At age 18, he began studying painting but was also interested in literature, writing his first novel in 1991. He attended the Beijing Film Academy and in 1995 founded China’s first independent production company, the Youth Experimental Film Group. He is a leading representative of the "Sixth Generation” of Chinese filmmakers. He debuted in film with The Pickpocket (Xiao wu, 1997), and his writer-director films have won awards at numerous festivals. Karlovy Vary audiences were first introduced to his films that had also been in competition at Venice: The World (Shijie, 2004) and Still Life (Sanxia haoren, 2006). At this year’s Cannes festival, his latest work A Touch of Sin competed for the Palme d’Or, as did two prior works: Unknown Pleasures (Ren xiao yao, 2002) and 24 City (Er shi si cheung ji, 2008).
mk2 Films
55, rue Traversière, 75012, Paris
France
Phone: +33 144 673 111
Fax: +33 143 072 963
E-mail: [email protected]
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