The World

The World (Zhang Ke Jia, 2005) [6]
I really don’t have much to say of any consequence about this film. It kind of just went through me and when it was over, that was that. There’s no doubt that there’s something in the visuals here that is appealing but the narrative encased in this visual world is so shallow for me that I’m grasping for anything to define what it is I just saw. Zhang is clearly interested in what China has become and what it will be, in terms of its economic development and the effect it has on the people. I can’t think of any better place that could be a microcosm of this than World Park, a world based both on capitalism and globalization. What Zhang seems to be saying is that people and their relationships still exist in this ever expanding global power, but it feels to me that the two main characters’ relationship is dwarfed by the big societal ideas that are being presented. The film may look good, but it seems to be an empty shell, and whatever was inside it leaked out just before I got to it. And I still can’t figure out why there are animated segments in the film. They don’t look bad, but it’s still jarring.