Unknown pleasures = Ren Xiao yao [DVD]

Unknown pleasures: Set in the provincial Chinese city of Datong in 2001, the story follows the lives of two 19 year-old unemployed and disenchanted friends Bin Bin (Zhao Wei Wei) and Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong) who spend their days aimlessly wandering around dreaming of ways of escaping their meaningless and boring existences. China, with its rapidly changing political and economical role in the world, finds itself being drawn into the web of globalisation and the World Trade Organisation and televisions all over China are blasting out the message of change to the Chinese population. However, for the alienated Bin Bin and Xiao Ji, it is the day-to-day survival that counts. Poignant and slow-moving. Cast also includes Zhao Tao, Zhou Qing Feng. “Xiao Wu”: Jia Zhang-Ke’s directorial debut low-budget film shot on 16mm with non-professional actors about a small time thief and pickpocket, Xiao Wu, operating in a small provincial town at a time of immense social change in China. Xiao Wu finds it difficult to adapt to the new China and worse still, that he is becoming an outcast facing rejection from a potential relationship and even his own parents. A tragi-comedy. Cast includes Wang Hong Wei, Hao Hong Jian, Zuo Bai Tao, Ma Jin Rei, Liu Jun Ying. Director of photography for both these beautifully directed films is Yu Lik Wai.