Credits: screenplay: Jia Zhang-Ke, Yongming Zhai; director of photography: Yu Wang, Nelson Yu Lik-wai; editor: Jing Lei Kong, Xudong Lin; music: Yoshihiro Hanno, Giong Lim; sound: Yang Zhang; production design: Qiang Liu; producer: Shozo Ichiyama; production: Bandai Visual Company, Bitters End, China Resources, Office Kitano, Shanghai Film Group, Xstream Pictures;

Country: China, Hong Kong, Japan

Year: 2008

Running time: 112

Colour: Colour

Format: HD CAM (HDTV)

Although a fiction, 24 CITY, which opened last year's Panorama, is a reinvented documentary, and the third in Jia Zhang-ke's series of films exposing China's dirty laundry (DONG and USELESS are the other two.) It begins with interviews with former laborers, all devoted to the old Communist ideology, at a military equipment factory in the city of Chengdu, which has been shut down to make room for a luxury high rise. Capitalism trumps commitment. The look of the interviews starts to change. Beautiful, frequently baroque images introduce additional subjects. On top of that, he uses four actors, including Joan Chen, to play ex-workers. This is a stunning fusion by a true postmodernist. (H. F.)