Wonderful character development!

Absolutely brilliant

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The dismantling of an old military factory and its replacement by the immense '24 City complex' of luxury flats and shopping malls in Chengdu is a perfect image of the socio-economic upheaval in China. It is the old communist credo - first the heavy industry and then consumption – on its head.As a great admirer of Bertolt Brecht ('Still Life' was inspired by the 'Good Person of Szechwan'), Jia Zhang Ke analyzes brilliantly the impact of socio-economic policies on individual lives. He never forgets the human touch, here in the reactions of three different generations linked to the factory.This factory was in fact a State secret, a hidden military plant for repairing airplanes. Mao had ordered that all military factories had to be hidden in the mountains in Central China. Their workforce had a privileged status for food, drinks, housing or entertainment. It formed a village of its own, nearly totally cut from the rest of the population of the city. This tightly knit group had its own histories of love, jealousy, family splits and losses, of camaraderie and solidarity. Jia Zhang Ke used professional actors, like Joan Chen, and amateurs in his movie in order to illustrate forcefully the human impact of the demolition of a landscape. The interviews revive reminiscences of crucial incidents that marked people for the rest of their lives. The demolition means sorrow and nostalgia for the old labor force, but also new opportunities for the new generation. The movie illustrates the monumental gap between the living conditions of the old generation (absolutely no waste of food, clothes or spare parts) and the new one (buying expensive gadgets in Hong Kong).Of course, the interview technique has been used in many movies (probably one of the first was 'Hitler, never heard of him' by Bertrand Blier), but rarely this technique has created a docu-drama of such gripping intensity as here. Jia Zhang Ke made a very original and highly emotional and moving masterpiece. A must see for all movie buffs.

That DVD design looked as if it was about a japan military story, because their military flag looks similar.This film is like an authentic documentary. The few famous actors appeared in it did a good job. Even though you know who they are in real life, but they acted as if they were really part of that factory.And I loved it when Joan chen spoke shanghai dialect, it is rare for a Chinese film to use shanghai dialect. It is sort of forbidden by the Chinese communist party. If hong kong was a part of China since 1949, then there won't be any cantonese films at all, because the CCP forces every film to be made in mandarin Chinese only.I also liked it when Joan chen spoke her mandarin with a shanghai accent. she can speak perfect mandarin, but she did it to make her role more authentic.Time is changing, I believe what those people said in this film really reflect what is happening to those factory workers who were laid off.

As a factory is torn down to make way for a snazzy modern apartment complex, a group of people connected with the factory share their thoughts on how it affected their lives. The film is wonderful aesthetically, with gorgeous compositions, lovely use of music, and a poetic air to it, assisted by actual snippets of poetry in the inter titles. Something of a companion piece to STILL LIFE, Jia explores the consequences of urban renewal, and how our city landscapes shape who we are. Most intriguingly, he obliterates the line between documentary and drama, to the point where it almost seems useless to distinguish between them. Like Herzog, he's shooting for an "ecstatic truth," one that reflects reality without necessarily sticking to it. For the most part, it's an effective and engaging technique. The most glaring exception is Joan Chen, whose is of course recognizable but also comes off a bit too "actor-y" and her performance feels out of place. And there's the added distraction of her playing a person who resembles Joan Chen. It's just too nudge-nudge wink-wink meta. It didn't work in OCEAN'S TWELVE and it doesn't work here. I found Tao Zhao's performance a little phony as well. But it's certainly an interesting piece of work, covering the breadth of humanity with just a handful of monologues, in stories both universal and specific, and often heartbreaking.

In general documentaries are underrated, although they are often more perplexing than fiction. In particular the documentaries that employ a personal approach offer plenty of opportunities for empathy and identification. The film "24 city" about the life in a Chinese factory is certainly a piece of art. By sheer coincidence, China has been the host to many similar produces. Joris Ivens was hooked on China, and made among others "The 400 million" (1939, about the resistance against Japan), "La Pharmacie 3" (1976, about a pharmacy) and "Une histoire de ballon" (1976, about a school). The latter two documentaries were recorded during the notorious Cultural Revolution. Much later there was "China blue" of Peled, about life in a Chinese textile factory. And now we have "24 city", this time made by a native producer. We are introduced to some ten people with various backgrounds, who are in some way involved in factory 420. Their stories give a lively impression of the Chinese community and nation in the past sixty years. Of course the backcloth, the production for the military air force, is not neutral. It is well known from American research, that the military-industrial complex is cherished by the state and makes excessive profits. And indeed the laborers of factory 420 have privileged working conditions. Therefore it is surprising to hear, that after the war against Vietnam the factory came in penury, in spite of the strong national economic growth. The production even had to be diversified to fridges and washing machines for the consumer market. Obviously the Chinese politics has not been directed towards imperialism. On the other hand, it suggests the attempt of the military to penetrate civil markets, similar to the habits in for instance Egypt. In the same vein, the factory apparently engages in the development of real estate. The factory 420 employed several thousands of workers, which had been mainly recruited from the country side. In fact the film shots suggest that the equipment is primitive and outdated. The location Chengdu had been selected, because in the fifties its position appeared safe from a strategic point of view. The first workers had to travel for two weeks in order to reach their new destination (and afterwards didn't have enough money to visit their family). A moving story tells about a married couple, who on their journey to the factory lost their little son during an intermediate stop. You would guess that they would temporarily split up or so in order to find him, but no, they didn't want to miss the boat and simply continued their journey without the boy. Perhaps this is less astounding, if you consider the instrumental role of children in large parts of Asia (and South-America and Africa, by the way). Lack of food and health care, physical cruelty and even infanticide are common. Considering that the production is on a mass scale and cheap labor prohibits the automation, the activities in the factory are repetitive and mind numbing (a characteristic of all serial production). Still the original workers, who undoubtedly remember the past famines, accept these circumstances. On the other hand, the youth of the past decades appears to develop a different attitude, and demand satisfaction in their work (which however in an industrial environment seems too ambitious). The film clearly shows that since the fifties the young workers had always craved for a marriage, but apparently especially the earlier generations experienced severe problems, due to the loss of their traditional society and due to lacking personal social skills. In spite of the Cultural Revolution, class differences still abound (the inequality in China and the USA is comparable). There is little room for happiness and social well-being in factory 420. Still, the Bolshevists tried to create close and autonomous communities in their factories. Just like the others, factory 420 had its own schools, cultural and sporting facilities and even food. The workers engage in social games in tea houses, and in dancing and singing (The Internationale in Chinese). All in all, "24 city" definitely is thought-provoking. The geostrategical importance of China explodes, and therefore the introduction of democratic control mechanisms is clearly overdue. You can see in the film how its absence keeps the people in a strait-jacket. If you enjoy social and labor issues, consider seeing my other reviews (I discovered 24 city thanks to a reference).