Platform

Please note: This screening takes place at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus.

One of China’s top filmmakers and among global cinema’s most consistent and urgent voices, Jia Zhangke has created one stunning portrait after another of a people and Chinese society in flux. The power of his stories is matched by a visual richness recognized at Cannes, Venice and film festivals the world over. The China Onscreen Biennial is delighted to offer a retrospective of Jia’s work, culminating in the West Coast Premiere of his latest opus and Cannes selection Ash is Purest White.

The Hometown Trilogy

Platform (2000)

Spanning just over a decade, Platform chronicles the radical transformation Chinese society went through in the wake of the Cultural Revolution through two young couples, all members of a song-and-dance troupe, as they ride the waves of social and cultural change in the roaring ’80s. Mao jackets give way to bellbottoms, socialist anthems to Teresa Teng’s pop ballads, and the socialist collective to the birth of the individual spirit. Film critic Johnathan Rosenbaum hailed Platform as “one of the most impressive Chinese films I’ve ever seen.”

35mm, color, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 154 min. Director/Screenwriter: Jia Zhangke. Cast: Wang Hongwei, Zhao Tao, Liang Jingdong, Yang Tianyi.