Platform [DVD]

Forget the lush costume dramas and historical martial-arts entertainments that from time to time win over western audiences to the occasional state-approved Chinese film; this is the real deal. Jia Zhang-ke's work can't be seen in China, mainly because it doesn't trade in sugar-coated orientalist fantasy or nationalistic propaganda. Rather, it charts in brutally honest and deeply affecting fashion his country's transition from a centralised command-and-control economic model to the present system of bizarre market-oriented totalitarian capitalism. And it unflinchingly portrays the human and spiritual costs of this massive cultural and social shift with subtlety and sensitivity. The educated, youthful individuals at the centre of 'Platform' are small-town dreamers, idealists and sympathetic losers whose aspirations and ways of life are mercilessly made over and crushed by the rising tide of Chinese state capitalism. Youthful rebelliousness and market reforms dangle the promises of western-style individualism in front of Jia's characters, but the remorselessness of the system and the dead hand of the parental generation snatch them away. Jia's films show his protagonists unlearning and chafing at the collectivist ethic of traditional communism ("You don't understand collectivism", the theater group leader reprimands the dilatory Cui Minliang early on in 'Platform' before the market reforms kick in). But they reveal that individualism is as empty and alienating as collectivism is stifling. The newly-dominant market and the system of local kleptocracies it spawns now command the unthinking loyalty once demanded by the Party and the communes. This transition is beautifully rendered in 'Platform' in a style which is as original as is the film's subject. Jia effectively critiques the ideology of individualism by refraining entirely from the use of the close up, shooting predominantly in long and medium shots and letting his takes run on way past the conventional length deemed suitable for tight film 'drama'. This allows the textures, habits and rhythms of real life to pervade the film and the largely non-professional cast to convey a tangible sense of time passing on both personal and broadly historical levels (the film covers an unspecified duration stretching from 1979, through the introduction of market reforms in 1980, and further on into the decade of the collapse of Soviet communism and the rise of global neo-liberalism). Despite Jia's scepticism about Chinese capitalism there's no nostalgia for any communist heyday, nor any romanticisation of peasant life. 'Platform', like the earlier 'Xiao Wu', depicts the small towns of provincial China as filthy, crumbling ash-heaps; but the rural hinterland is itself a blighted landscape of grim subsistence, and the peasants who toil in it are narrow-minded and impassive. This sounds grim, and indeed both 'Platform' and 'Xiao Wu' are deeply pessimistic. But both are leavened by moments of humour, playful spontaneity, and unaffected cameraderie between protagonists, and Jia's beautiful control of his material which always seems unforced and naturalistic, right up to the extraordinary final scenes with which he ends both films. 'Platform' is a demanding and original film, and ultimately a very rewarding one. It tries something new in cinema and it shows us in ways other media have not yet attempted what the economic and social changes that have transformed China in the last 20 years might mean. Interested viewers might want to try 'Xiao Wu' first, as that film is more recognisably linked to the traditions of European art cinema (especially Italian neo-realism) than the more strikingly original and ambitious 'Platform'.

Chinese film maker Jia Zhang-ke has attracted much critical attention in the West. His first two films - "Platform" and "Xiao Wu" - contain significant autobiographical elements as they trace the process of change in China. "Platform", Jia's second film, actually charts the earlier period, the decade from 1979-1989 which encompassed his teenage years (he was born in 1970).

The film follows the experience of teenage - itself a journey into uncertainty as the adolescent seeks to escape from a child's identity and establish an adult one, all the time prone to typical complaints, demands, self-doubts, and all-too-familiar angst. Set the experience of adolescence in a China which is, itself, undergoing rapid, radical change and search for a new identity, and the central characters in "Platform" are seen to be confronted with a particularly disorienting and fraught set of experiences.

Set in the claustrophobia of a 'small' town, "Platform" follows a group of young people who are employed in a theatre troupe - initially as part of the regime's propaganda system, but later privatised and forced to create a wholly new repertoire and objectivity. They are distanced from the peasants and industrial workers - even in the clothes they wear (parents and others complain about bellbottom trousers).

There is stark contrast, here, between the expressiveness of young people in the West, or in Japan, and the bland adolescence of the film's characters. The young people are socially and culturally ostracised. They have time to explore, but there lives have been emotionally censored - they seem to lack the portfolio of emotions we are used to in teenagers. This is a tale of liberation without experience or expectation of what liberty might be. Freedom of self-expression merely means freedom to totally ostracise oneself from friends and family, to cast oneself wholly adrift. There is a tension and fear which permeates the film.

Such is the broad outline, and there is much in "Platform" which is worthy of discussion and analysis. However, it is not a film which is going to find a very broad, sympathetic audience in the West. It is told - there is little plot, merely lots of scenes - in excruciatingly slow detail. It can be very funny - one of the opening shots portrays the troupe performing as a railway train. But the camera is often distant, almost detached from the action, and the action at times is more an exacting exploration of inaction. While it touches on emotions, many of these are not readily recognisable by a Western audience - at times you feel the cultural rift is too great.

An interesting film, perhaps a very interesting film, but not one many people can honestly claim to enjoy. A film to watch, a film which gives you a new perspective on adolescence as you strive to understand the significance of another culture undergoing its own cultural and political angst, but not a film which is going to appeal to everyone.

Amazon usually carries a good introductory selection of Asian films, with some of the more enjoyable being "Road Home", "Happy Times", "Beijing Bicycle", "At the Height Of Summer" or "In The Mood For Love".

Having watched Platform however, I fail to see the reason for its existence. Technically, the picture quality ranges from very bad to downright irritating - comparable to watching a ten year old VHS tape. Not much else can be said...

The soundtrack is a cacophony of noise pollution that never stops. Admittedly, this is the exact reflection of life in China, and if it was the director's purposeful aim to recreate this, then job well done I suppose.

There is no plot, there is no action - just a train of vaguely related scenes depicting the rather pointless and uneventful lives of the group of friends.

On top of it all, the English subtitles are buggy.

I am going through the film in my head... and there is simply nothing else to be said... Perhaps, if this film is an exercise in nihilism, and you are a fan of such, then this may appeal to you.