Unknown Pleasures

Not much happens in Jia Zhang-Ke's portrait of disaffected youth in contemporary China, and what little does, happens very slowly. The central characters are Xiao Ji and Bin Bin, a couple of young layabouts in an unnamed provincial town. Mostly they ride about aimlessly on motorcycles or sit glumly in the neighborhood youth center, smoking innumerable cigarettes and talking about looking for work. Even what passes for romance in their lives has a forlorn air: Bin Bin sits for hours on a couch beside his girlfriend, watching television cartoons, while Xiao Ji chases after Qiao Qiao, an aspiring singer involved with a seedy loan shark who also serves as her agent. Eventually the two leads decide to rob a bank, with an outcome that is predictably dire. Shot with handheld cameras on digital video, Unknown Pleasures has a suitably gritty, naturalistic look, but while its deliberate, elliptical style conveys the vacuity and hopelessness of the characters' lives, it doesn't establish much sympathy for them, making this more of a detached sociological study than a satisfying drama. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)