Tian Zhu Ding – A Touch of Sin

21 Jan 2015

Director: Jia Zhangke Jia

China

2013

133 min

This film tracks four citizens of modern China. Each one tries to find peace and purpose in this enormous nation as outside forces conspire to grind them down. Dahai is a miner who is tired of local worthies enriching themselves. Zhou San is an itinerant worker who finds use for a firearm. Xiao Yu is a sauna receptionist harassed by leering clients and Xiao Hui is a handsome young factory worker who hopes to make his fortune in a brothel. Jia dovetails these
four stories until the film becomes a kind of narrative relay race in which China is a cold and vast place where sin may be the only thing we have to keep us warm.