A very exhausting film to watch late at night. On the whole really impressive, Jia Zhang-ke’s The World, like his 24 City, is basically about the modernization of Beijing. My biggest compliment for this film is that it frequently reminded me of my favorite film, Playtime. The real life “World Park” in Beijing is a giant tourist attraction that exhibits most of the world’s great monuments at an advertised 1/3 of their actual sizes. There are women dancing around the park to music from all around the world, with the women appropriately dressed to matched the corresponding origins (one song is recognizable as the influence for M.I.A.’s “Jimmy”). When the film is looking at the wonders and peculiarities of this massive park and how horrifying it is, the film is spectacular. But the park isn’t really Jia’s main concern.
The film closely follows three or four women who are dancers at the park, and their relationships with friends and lovers. While many of the interactions are very interesting and moving, I thought that most of them were meandering, too melodramatic, or boring. The fact that the film runs almost two and a half hours didn’t help. The film feels way too long by at least half an hour, and I thought that the ending was random and kind of angsty. It was completely the wrong note to leave the film on and left a bad taste in my mouth for a film that I actually liked well enough. I would see this again, and there are enough fun moments to make it a rewarding experience, like the 6 or 7 animated sequences involving flying people and cell phone interactions. The music is kitchy but also very good.