A Chinese/Japanese co-production, this film directed by Jia Zhangke won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It’s set in contemporary China, and derives its narrative momentum from the changing political and economic landscape in the sprawling country where the shift from a centrally planned to a market-based economy is causing a growing gulf between those who are prospering and those who are falling behind.
Of course, as in Russia before it, there’s a healthy dose of corruption and collusion which is helping to further drive a wedge between haves and have nots. And in Zhangke’s film that tension leads to an outbreak of violence.
Touch of Sin screens at the RPL Theatre tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Friday and Sunday at 9 p.m. Here’s the trailer: