Film Screening--The N.C. Premiere of:

A Touch of Sin

(Jia Zhangke, 2013, 125min, China, in Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray)
[Click here for the New York Times review]

--Introduced by Prof. Carlos Rojas, AMES.

A "brilliant exploration of violence and corruption in contemporary China" (Jon Frosch, The Atlantic), A Touch of Sin was inspired by four shocking (and true) events that forced the world's fastest growing economy into a period of self-examination. Written and directed by master filmmaker Jia Zhangke (The World, Still Life), "one of the best and most important directors in the world" (Richard Brody, The New Yorker), this daring, poetic and grand-scale film focuses on four characters, each living in different provinces, who are driven to violent ends. An angry miner, enraged by widespread corruption in his village, decides to take justice into his own hands. A rootless migrant discovers the infinite possibilities of owning a firearm. A young receptionist, who dates a married man and works at a local sauna, is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. And a young factory worker goes from one discouraging job to the next, only to face increasingly degrading circumstances. (c) Kino Lorber

The film also draws on the history of Wuxia stories. Its English title is a reference to King Hu's 1971 action epic A Touch of Zen, one of the most influential Wuxia films.

-- A Touch of Sin was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, with Jia winning the award for Best Screenplay!

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: The Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES).