A Touch of Sin (2013)

A Touch of Sin (2013)

An exploration of violence in capitalist China

The Very Best

8.2

Movie

China, France
Cantonese, English, Mandarin
Action, Crime, Drama
2013
JIA ZHANGKE
Baoqiang Wang, Han Dong, Jiang Wu
131 min

What it's about

Four independent stories set in modern China about random acts of violence.

The take

“It is better to live miserable than to die happy,” or so says one of the characters in Jia Zhangke’s anthology film A Touch of Sin. On its surface, the “sin” referenced in the title might pertain to the acts of murder that the four protagonists commit, but in the context of China’s rapidly changing capitalist landscape (a theme explored in the director’s other pictures), it reveals itself as a malady shared by Chinese laborers treated as dispensable resources by the powers-that-be. Murder, then, is explored as an extremity, the effectual breaking point of people no longer able to contain the injustice within themselves. Beneath the splatters of blood is a plea for empathy and understanding, at once remorseful and full of conviction.

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