Jia Zhang-ke by Walter Salles

For the Jia afficianado, Salles' film gives its filmmaker subject great leeway to ruminate on his work. The film illuminates both cultural and personal elements that inform Jia's work. This brings dimension to the films that might otherwise be lost on those less familiar with Chinese culture and practice. That the film includes lengthy passages from all of Jia's major works up through A Touch of Sin is only a bonus.

I can understand Salles' admiration for Zhang-ke but to make a movie you have to have a central idea and try to build your artistic vision around it in order to evoke a feeling or an idea or both, but this movie is too dull to create any symphaty for Zhang-ke and states the obvious too much that it hasn't got much value as a document as such. It would be more touching if Salles had only focused on Jia's commentary without trying to introduce him to the world.