A Touch of Sin (2013)

The Worst Film Ever

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

A TOUCH OF SIN is a hard-hitting anthology from mainland China, looking at how social issues can lead to sudden bursts of unexpected and extreme violence. It's completely unlike the majority of Chinese mainstream movies, mostly concerned with propaganda and promoting Chinese values; this is much grittier, more downbeat, to the degree that it becomes completely nihilistic.It's also a fine piece of cinema and thoroughly compelling. There are four stories here in which various injustices lead to violence, and of these the opening story, a DEATH WISH-style effort in which Jiang Wu's sympathetic lead is driven over the edge by the corruption he sees around him, is by far the best and most compelling. The second story has KUNG FU KILLER's Wang Baoqiang playing another baddie with a ruthless streak; the third has a dispossessed young woman who has been generally unlucky in life, while the last is a story of young and idealistic love. Although all of the stories are rather depressing, they're very well acted and directed, and the violence is superbly portrayed to the kind of shocking extreme that Hollywood just can't handle these days.

Since I viewed 'The World' and 'Still Life' from director Jia ZK a few years back, I have become a fan of this 6th generation film director from China. In this film he explored the ugly side of China, amid its prosperity (at least for some), GDP growth and blatant capitalism. It is about the contrast between the average person trying to make a decent living, and the corrupt officials and bandits that got rich quick. The film contains 4 stories, loosely linked together. Corruption, prostitution, social injustice, stressful lives of migrant workers in the World's Factories in the southern part of the country are all the issues explored and exposed here. Gosh, I am glad this film was allowed to be made by the Chinese government. I bet Jia's international fame has something to do with it.All in all, I enjoyed the film greatly. I once worked and lived in China for a number of years so the stories relate to me quite easily. For now, I hope Jia can continue to do his work, with the freedom and liberty that he has so far enjoyed. I look forward to more of his work.

after finally watching A Touch Of Sin this evening at ACMI with some friends, it's left me stuck in 2 worlds - missing Jia Zhang-Ke's meditative & lyrical work of the past & liking the new approach to these social wrongs in a more brutal / violent / cynical manner... first thoughts were quite similar to when i watched another master film maker Kim Ki-Duk's "Pieta" which after further digestion, thought & reading became my fave film of 2013 - both films show violence in a heavy way but still portray it in a meditative & profound manner, using symbolic moments to remind the audience about these issues... in hindsight i really like this film and where Jia is going with his approach... considering this is a narrative driven film over his powerful and thought provoking documentaries, all the killings were based on real events the director read in blogs... the film is a vessel to show these separate events as one about alienation, the varying classes in china & corruption / political flaws... here's a good article from Slant which covers a lot of how i feel towards the films - 8/10 http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/a-touch-of-sin

Chinese film-maker Jia Zhang-ke's new film 'A Touch of Sin' is made up of four stories loosely connected to each other. <!--more-->Zhou San (Wang Baoqiang) introduces us to the first of the four characters, a quiet man who seems to have a lot to hide. As with the other characters, Zhou San works away from home and thus separated from his family and home. Dahai (Jiang Wu) tells another story, a coal miner who won't stop pestering everyone about how his boss sold off the mine and got rich while never distributing the wealth to the village. One too many outbursts leads to a chain of events which ends badly.The third story sees Hubei (Zhao Tao) working in a massage parlour as a receptionist, who is having an affair with a married man. Having waited so long for him to make up his mind, Hubei gives him 6 months to leave his wife. Troubles with work and her private life soon catch up with Hubei, as it does with the final character Xiao Hui (Luo Lanshan). The youngest of the four characters, Xiao Hui drifts from job to job, seemingly in a permanent state of flux. He left his last job through an act of cowardice, involving a work-related accident with a colleague. Permanently broke and unable to find his feet anywhere, Hubei finds the struggle of keeping a job and sending money to his mother difficult to fathom.'A Touch of Sin' exposes the four individuals struggles in modern China, revealing a growing discontent between the exploited working classes and the ruling elite which forces them to take measures into their own hands. Animals are metaphors for these people who are transported from place to place, who have no apparent control over their location or destiny. These lost souls are defined by a stark landscape of degradation, greed and corruption. There's nowhere to hide, each cannot continue with the life they've led, being controlled by others who gain everything and return very little. Each has to make a decision whether to become part of the system which will benefit themselves but lose all sense of morality and ethics, to avenge their ills, or to curl up and die.'A Touch of Sin' starts off well, Dahai's story is one which will probably interest you the most. But the film is too long, and suffers from a second half which doesn't quite match the tension and drama of the first half. Its a bleak and unforgiving film, such is the pessimism in Zhang- Ke's dehumanised China that there is simply nowhere to run. In one scene, one characters asks another if he ever feels like travelling abroad. "Why would I?" he replies. "Everywhere is broke. Foreigners come here now." Welcome to the new China.