24 City a Documentary for the Working ClassThe third in Pan Asian Film festival hosting the pre release of 24 City at Piccadilly Apollo. After sinking into the luxury seats you are already in the mood to get on with the cinematic experience. Featuring an introduction to new faces & loyal followers, Malcolm McNeil representative of Asian House welcomes us to 24 City. Shown at the luxury Apollo cinema off Piccadilly Circus, which has their own bar downstairs as well as velvet covered seats and a waiting area where you can sit in individual booths in style before your film starts.
The beginning starts with the frame focused on a middle ages slim man. His wrinkles give away his age and his eyes display sorrow. His was a worker at Factory 420.
Over three generations, we meet eight characters in a documentary style film. They were old workers, factory executives and kids growing up in the sector and their stories build a picture of what China was during the production of aeronautic parts.
Director, Jia Zhang Ke, states: ‘Present‐day films rely more and more on action and movement. In this film, I wanted to return to spoken language. Here, narration is taken as a kind of movement to be captured by the camera.’ True to his word the film moves from anecdote from each character with progressions of the Factory 420 being explained through the shots of the decay, left over machinery, new showing the renovation and development of the new apartment complex 24 City.
Most of the people featured are real inhabitants of the factory but with a few leading cast to not detract away from the realism. Joan Chen plays Gu Minhua or ‘Little Flower’ her beauty got her the title of ‘standard component’ meaning the flower of the factory. This beautiful woman who had to go to the factory purely as there was no room in her house. This causes difficulty in her getting married as she felt she was far too superior to the men in her home town but too shy to pursue any in the factory.
Though creating military was not the most glamorous, the benefits given to the people involved were immense at the time, whether it be a kilo of meat a month, private education for children, 10 yuan a week or uniforms it was all quite luxurious for the time they lived in.
Therefore when the decline loomed and people started to be laid off, it really affected them and their families. We don’t have much special effect or any action scenes given it were a factory for weapons, but all that superficial stuff wasn’t needed. An eye opener for people who lived on the outside.
24 City seemed to be no more than a hollow husk of memories and to quaote my mother who came to see this with me: 'What did I do to deserve such torture watching this movie?' not really a crowd pleaser.
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