Michael Berry’s study of Jia Zhang-ke’s masterful trio of films, The Hometown Trilogy, offers a fascinating insight into the cinematic world of one of contemporary China’s most influential directors. Berry focuses on Xiao Wu (1997), Platform (2000) and Unknown Pleasures (2002), films highlighting the plight of marginalized individuals as they struggle to navigate the radically transforming terrain of contemporary China. Highlighting Jia’s use of underground shooting techniques, brilliant cinematic language and engagement with other literary and cinematic works, Berry explores the central themes in Jia’s oeuvre: destruction and change, stagnation and movement, the individual versus society, political culture versus popular culture, and, of course, the ceaseless search for home.
