It’s time for today’s trio of online store additions to be unveiled. This latest bundle consists of three titles from Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” line: Johnnie To’s “Mad Detective,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Listen Up, Philip,” and Jia Zhangke’s “The World.”
Jia Zhangke was born in a small rural village called Fenyang in 1970, becoming a filmmaker after moving to Beijing to study at the Beijing Film Academy in 1994. Jia made three “underground” pictures (meaning that they were produced independently, outside the supervision of Chinese officials) before clearing his fourth film, “The World,” with government censors, a move that allowed for the film to be his first screened theatrically in China.
“The World” is set at a theme park (based on two such parks in China) that offers scaled-down replicas of many of the globe’s greatest attractions, a sort of dress rehearsal for upwardly mobile Chinese who can afford the luxury of visiting the park but who haven’t quite attained the kind of wealth to actually travel the world and see the sights being replicated in the park. The film juxtaposes the interpersonal drama of those who work in and around the park while capturing the tremendous societal changes happening around them.