Shijie (2004)

English title: The World

The lives of several characters who work at a theme park near Beijing.

Lethargic chronicle of a few characters' lives. While hard to sit through, it has some informational interest for depicting the working class in China. A country which has gone through one major revolution and a few minor ones should not have the exploitative kind of economy one sees here -- in one scene, the overworked victim of a work accident  writes his last words in a piece of paper: it is the money he owes his colleagues and a food sales stand. It is too bad the film is otherwise tedious, and even occasionally cringeworthy, for example in the depiction of the friendship between the protagonist and a Russian émigrée. The ending tops it all in terms of absurdity, but I think very few people will be saddened by its arrival.

Rating: 33