Ash is pure white

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Movie
German title Ash is pure white
Original title 江湖 儿女 / Jiang hu er nü
Country of production China , France , Japan
Publishing year 2018
Rod
Director Jia Zhangke
script Jia Zhangke
production Shôzô Ichiyama, Nathanaël Karmitz, Olivier Père
music Giong Lim
camera Eric Gautier
cut Matthieu Laclau
occupation

Ash is Pure White is a Chinese feature film directed by Jia Zhangke . It ran in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 . The Chinese title of the film means "Children of the Underworld".

action

The film begins in 2001, at the beginning of the Chinese economic boom. It is set in Datong City, Shanxi Mining Province . Zhao Qiao is dating Guo Bin, a local organized crime boss, Jianghu. When the two are ambushed by a gang of youths and Bin is brutally beaten, Qiao fires a shot from Bin’s revolver. She does not reveal who the gun belongs to and is sent to prison for five years for illegally owning guns.

After her release in 2006, Qiao traveled to the Three Gorges Dam area , which was flooded at the time. She tracks down Bin who, after being dethroned as a gang boss, works here as a businessman. He has not visited her in prison and does not answer the phone when she calls him. She confronts him with a trick, a debate ensues, and they split up.

In the third part of the film, Qiao has returned to Datong and rules Bin’s old territory as clan chief. I am also returning - in a wheelchair. Qiao takes in and cares for Bin, but it is clear that the balance of power has reversed and their love is over.

production

The role of Qiao is played by Zhao Tao , Jia Zhangke's wife, who almost always appears in her husband's films. Jia cast three supporting roles with fellow directors. Eric Gautier , who has already worked for Patrice Chéreau and Olivier Assayas , was responsible for the camera . In addition, Jia uses its own archive material.

Jia Zhangke is part of a group of Chinese directors who started making films about urban life in China in the 1990s. Your films deal with the constantly changing society there. Especially in Jia's films, documentary and fictional elements are mixed up.

reception

The film won over 99% of the Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.23 ​​out of a possible 10 points.

According to Georg Dotzauer from Tagesspiegel , pure white unfolds its “irresistible power” as a portrait of a woman. Zhao Tao has never played more nuanced than here and only works with "tiny" things.

During the time , Georg Seeßlen wrote that the film could be understood as a “mixture of gangster film , road movie and melodrama ”, “which at its core is about the strength of women and the weakness of men”. At the same time, the history of the country of China would be told in the stages of internal and external reconstruction. In addition, anyone outside of China can recognize themselves in the protagonists.

At the beginning of March 2019 , Asche is pure white was “Film of the Week” on Spiegel Online . In the accompanying article, Dunja Bialas points out connections to earlier films by Zhangke. The director is constantly developing and is now for the first time a female main character in the foreground.

In the taz , Fabian Tietke writes that the film is "a bow to the achievement of getting back on your feet after radical changes without condemning the failure to face this challenge."

In the online magazine Film plus Critique , Christian Klosz judges: “The film is strongest in its short, calm shots, in which Zhangke gives his images and actors space to breathe, captures beautiful shots, and highlights them with beguiling sounds: Then small ones emerge , truly enchanting cinematic moments. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jiang hu er nu (Ash Is Purest White). In: festival-cannes.com. Festival de Cannes, accessed on March 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Ash Is Purest White. In: Official website for the film. Retrieved March 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Georg Seeßlen: A woman like a country. In: ZEIT online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, February 27, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Dunja Bialas: Starting signal for a different future. In: spiegel.de. SPIEGEL ONLINE, March 1, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b Andreas Kilb: A Chinese education of the heart. In: FAZ Online. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH 2001–2019, March 1, 2019, accessed on March 16, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c Gregor Dotzauer: The loyalty of the lawless. In: tagesspiegel.de. Der Tagesspiegel, February 27, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Fabian Tietke: China in transformation. In: taz.de. taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH, February 27, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Gerhard Midding: Critique of ash is pure white. In: epd-film.de. Joint work of Evangelical Journalism (GEP), non-profit GmbH, February 22, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Tao Zhao. In: imdb.com. IMDb.com, Inc., accessed March 17, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Ash is pure white In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 16, 2019. Note: The Tomatometer is the percentage of Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critics who gave the film a positive rating.
  11. ↑ Christian Klosz: "Ash is pure white" - criticism. In: Film plus criticism - online magazine for film & cinema. Film plus criticism - online magazine for film & cinema, April 25, 2019, accessed on August 4, 2019 .