The World [Masters of Cinema] [Blu-ray]

Zhang Ke Jia's The World is a great location in search of a movie. Set in a Beijing theme park recreating the major cities of Europe dominated by a one-third scale replica of the Eiffel Tower and dealing with the employees and their friends, it's really just comes over as a whole lot of nothing. Scenes may be true to life but they're trivial and, like the characters, never really go anywhere. That may well be the point, but that doesn't make watching it easy going. There's possibly something about the globalization of Chinese culture lurking in their somewhere and the contrast between the glamorous face of modern China vs the poor quality of life for migrant workers, but nothing really comes through because the characters are so univolving. Instead it's like watching people out of a bus window on a rainy day while waiting for the traffic lights to change, images washing over you inoffensively but without leaving any lasting impression as you move on.

Be aware that some Asian releases of this title are the much shorter 105-minute Chinese theatrical version rather than the international 139-minute version presented on Zeitgeist's Region 1 NTSC DVD and Eureka's UK Blu-ray.

One of the most important contemporary Chinese filmmakers documenting the profound changes going on in his country, Jia Zhang Ke's use of a theme park in Beijing is an inspired choice of location that brilliantly and profoundly expresses the difficulties facing ordinary Chinese people as their country plunges headlong into modernisation, globalisation and economic reform.

The setting of The World is a theme park of major monuments and attractions from around the world, in reduced scale, the Eiffel Tower sitting alongside the Pyramids, London Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. Working in the park are many immigrants and workers who have travelled from remote country towns, some of them from the director's home town of Fenyang in the Shanxi province, some of them perhaps even the same characters stagnating there during the eighties in his earlier film, Platform. The theme park serves as a powerful metaphor for China's surreal relationship with the rest of the world at a time when, with the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, the country is moving into an international arena, seeing huge reforms and experiencing rapid economic expansion.

Jia's style is still very much low-key in regards to the narrative, though there is a considerable amount of poignancy, humour and irony in the drama of the minor disputes, friendships, affairs and problems faced by simple people with complex emotional lives. Set against the impressive background of reduced world monuments, the false glamour of their professions is at odds with the reality of the conditions they work and live under, and the small scale portraits of little lives caught up in a big machine evidently has implications on a larger scale. Beautifully shot, and looking incredible on Blu-ray, The World could just be the director's best film yet - but with the world changing quicker than he can film it (this film already superseded but perhaps not surpassed by Still Life and 24 City), there will always be new challenges for this remarkable young director.

Aside from the beautiful transfer of an impressively photographed film, the extra features on this release are extensive and to the high standard you would expect for a Masters of Cinema release. Several fascinating in-depth intimate documentaries and interviews with Jia Zhang Ke reveal a degree of sensitivity, intelligence and openness that one might not expect from familiarity with this director's work alone (which is also covered in detail here), as well as giving ample indication of the difficulties faced by any filmmaker working under arbitrary censorship laws in China. Available on Blu-ray only, this is an exemplary release that should be reason enough for any arthouse cinema fan who hasn't upgraded to do so now.

This latest film from Jia Zhangke is quite his best - I thought that 24 CITY would be hard to beat, but this is even better. Finally, we have a young Chinese director who is showing us a different China - China in transition - not the China of some old dynastic period, but China today. He shows us the massive economic & cultural changes that taking place all over China - with the (sometimes) tragic human consequences. A remarkable director, a remarkable film.