Unknown Pleasures – Ren xiao yao (2002)

Directed by: Jia Zhang Ke | 107 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Wei Wei Zhao, Qiong Wu, Qing Feng Zhou, Hong Wei Wang, Ru Bai, Xi An Liu, Shou Lin Xu, Ren Ai Jun, Dao Xiao, Zi Ying, Limin Wang, Tao Zhao

Although by no means comparable to standard Hollywood work, ‘Unknown Pleasures’ is a relatively straightforward, focused narrative with a lot of momentum for Zhangke’s doing. There are still long takes in the film, for example with only a character riding his moped in the picture for a long time, but the shot sequence is often logical and practically every scene serves to drive the plot forward. The story is also clear and accessible to everyone. There is a central love story in it, and a clearly identifiable bad guy that needs to be fought. The fact that the tone is not always rosy, and that an interesting social context is discernible, is to be expected given Zhangke’s personal preferences, and ensures that the film has not become a simple genre work, but is also worth seeing in terms of content.

The line of Zhangke’s film ‘Platform’, in which the performing arts increasingly became part of pop culture – where they were previously mainly used as propaganda – is continued in this film. Dancer Qiao Qiao (Tao Zhao) appears in the film purely from a commercial point of view. She dances to promote the products of “Wines and Liqueurs from Mongolia”. Xiao Ji (Qiong Wu) meets her in this capacity and immediately falls for her. Despite his sometimes tough attitude, however, he is quite shy, so his buddy Bin Bin (Wei Wei Zhao) puts in a good word for him with the already experienced – and damaged – Qiao Qiao. He gets her to let him bring Xiao Ji into her trailer. She asks the boy what he wants to do with her, to which he does not manage to say a word. When she says she’s had an abortion and asks if he still wants her, he replies in the affirmative, adding, cool and cute, “I’ll make you melt like fresh noodles.” She is amused by this and gives him an unexpected kiss, which puts Xiao Ji in a trance in love for good. On the way back, on the back of Bin Bin’s moped, he still dreams of this while holding his mate around his waist.

It is these kind of sensitive moments that give the film an attractive charm. Love is also important in Bin Bin’s life. His somewhat quiet, insecure girlfriend is about to take an exam, and suggests not to see each other during that time. But normally they sit together on the couch watching television. Adorable is the scene where they grab hands and spontaneously start singing along to the song on TV, as a matter of course, without any obvious dramatic transition or emotions on the faces.
In this case too, all this takes place against a real, historical and turbulent social background. Houses are being demolished, roads are built, bombings take place, and television shows members of the quasi-religious Falungong movement setting themselves on fire – a movement that Bin Bin’s mother is a member of.

Meanwhile, the young people are trapped in a world of aimlessness, not knowing what they can or want to do with their future. The feeling of being caught in a situation seems to be explicitly symbolized in some scenes. In one such scene, Qiao Qiao tries again and again to leave her trailer without her dance clothes – thus quitting work – but is repeatedly pushed into her chair by her “friend” who blocks the doorway. It’s a fascinating scene with Qiao Qiao rising from her chair over and over, and an expressionless friend holding her back in the same way. It’s like watching a constant replay. The cinematic equivalent of a record that sticks. Later, something similar happens to Xiao Ji, whose moped stalls again and again when he tries to drive up a sand hill.
In this indeterminate situation, the characters also remain until the end, uncertain of their future or of a good prospect. Fortunately, there is still some humor added to the film. When the two friends want to rob a bank, they make a fake bomb that is not very convincing. In any case, neither boy knows how to get it right. When Xiao Wu has the thing around his neck and asks Bin Bin if it looks real, he replies: “The bomb does, you don’t”. And when Bin Bin has started a business in illegal video CDs, Zhangke makes a funny reference to his previous work when a friend asks if he doesn’t have art films like ‘Xiao Wu’ or ‘Platform’. Unfortunately not. Then he picks up ‘Pulp Fiction’.