Title: Platform
AKA:
Year: 2000
Original title: Zhantai | 站台
Runtime: 2 hours, 28 minutes
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English | Spanish | Japanese | Chinese (embedded vobsubs) & English | Spanish (external .srt)
Genre: Drama | History
Director: Jia Zhangke
Cast
Hongwei Wang ... Minliang
Tao Zhao ... Ruijuan
Jing Dong Liang ... Chang Jun
Tian Yi Yang ... Zhong Pin
Bo Wang ... Yao Eryong
NB
For English subtitles, use the external srt subtitles. There is a gap of about ten minutes in the embedded English subtitles, which I reconstructed for the srt subs. All other subtitles are OK.
Plot / Synopsis
Set in Fenyang, Shanxi Province, the film focuses on a group of amateur theatre troupe performers whose fate mirrors that of the general population in China as massive socio-economic changes sweep across the mainland. The film commences in 1979 with the troupe performing numbers idolizing Mao Zedong, ending in the '80s when the shows reflect the strong Western influences pervading China, covering a decade in which China saw tremendous changes.
Review
Platform ("Stage" might be a better translation) shows us the lives of a troupe of actors as China went from Maoism to markets, from 1980 to the 1990s. The treatment is sardonic and distant; we rarely see anyone in a closeup, and the point of view is as critical of liberalization (embodied in bad rock and go-go dancing) as it is of the cult of Mao (performed in the hilarious socialist-patriotic opera at the beginning of the movie). As Fassbinder said of the movies of Douglas Sirk, material objects--a brick wall, a pile of boards, a marketful of cheap clothing, bowls of noodles, embroidered slipcovers, copies of bellbottom pants, a truck, etc.--are at the center of the mise en scene, appropriately so, since the story is indeed about material changes. In fact the movie bears a lot of resemblance to Fassbinder's Marriage of Maria Braun, as both trace growing prosperity, consumerism, and personal alienation through a sequence of rooms, houses, relationships, and home furnishings. Provincial China moves from dirt, scarcity, and collectivism to a modest supply of consumer goods and more individual freedom/insecurity. This historical movement is intertwined with the characters' aging from their teens to middle age. There is no appreciable increase in human joy and happiness, nor a marked decrease either. This cold, distant treatment will not please some viewers.
IMDb
Technical Specs
Source: DVDR from mmmcccddd at ADC
Group/Ripper: nurkunst
Video Format: MKV / AVC
Video Bitrate: 1860 Kbps
Frame Rate: 25.000 fps
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1021 x 552
Bits/(Pixel*Frame): 0.188
Audio Format: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 256 Kbps
Sampling rate: 48000 Hz