Director: Wang Jing Year: 2007 Rating: 6.0 Country:
China
This very authentic slice of life look at students in a small north China
town is perhaps too slowly paced and overly long at 140 minutes, but it still
manages to intriguingly pull the viewer into lives that are in truth fairly
ordinary – showing that little dramas are all around us if we look for them.
For a few weeks the film follows the lives of a handful of sixteen- year
old students into the classroom and into their homes but primarily explores
their interactions with one another. As we peek into their lives we see friendships
begun and ended, school gangs formed and fought and romances yearned for
and acted on. Surrounding the lives of these students is the crass outside
world of grown-ups where the kids are witness to corruption, class status,
economic blues and little hope. At the end of the film nothing very much
has changed – no great dramas have unfolded – the students are just that
much closer to being what and where their parents are. This is the début
film from female Chinese director Wang Jing.