Er shi si cheng ji 2008

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Jia is one of the guiding lights of the sixth generation of Chinese filmmakers, and 24 City is a potent exploration of his constant theme -- the tectonic shifts that occur as the old gives way to the new. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Jia is an artist, one of the most interesting filmmakers working anywhere in the world, and he made his film to bear witness to a way of life while witnesses could still be found. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: With this moody and curiously effective follow-up to his critically acclaimed drama Still Life, director Jia Zhang-Ke paints another vivid portrait of China devastated by commercial 'progress.' Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Mostly, 24 City falls into the same Jia trap of inadvertently drawing the viewers' gaze past his human subjects and to the poetic images of a country in painful metamorphosis. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The director has an exquisite eye that keeps getting stronger and subtler. He trusts that beauty is vagueness's alluring upside. Read more

Maggie Lee, Hollywood Reporter: In [Jia Zhangke's] chronicle of the changing fortunes of a defunct but once glorious aeronautic factory and its workers through talking heads and wordless images exclusively, the documentary strain prevails to simple, yet emotionally reverberating effect. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: 24 City includes evocative footage of Factory 420's dismantling, but emphasizes people over place. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The result is surprisingly engrossing -- even lively, due in part to brief musical numbers inserted amid the interviews. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The actors in 24 City, an experimental fiction-nonfiction hybrid, bring their own existential realities to their short, touching performances. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: 24 City won't change the minds of detractors -- it is his most painfully slow yet -- but it might change the minds of his supporters, including this critic, for Jia attempts something that is, in the end, unforgivable. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A blend of documentary and drama which is by turns movingly authentic and deliberately artificial. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The boom-and-bust cycle that afflicts company towns in capitalist countries also dogs the state-run cogmakers, as Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-ke lyrically depicts in 24 City, an ode to changing times. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The film takes on an operatic feel, moving between euphoria for the new and lament for the lost. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Strongest moments are when the pristine HD lensing by Hong Kong's Yu Lik-wai (a Jia regular) and Wang Yu, and warm string music by Yoshihiro Hanno, take over in montages showing the gradual dismantling of the factory. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: This subversively old-fashioned hymn to industrial production is filled with offbeat, vaguely absurd details. Read more