In a recent interview, film director Jia Zhangke revealed that he thinks that 2009 is going to be his year. In the past, the director was known as a producer of independent, slightly controversial films - his 1997 effort The Pickpocket Xiao Wu - watch here earned him a one year ban on making films from Chinese film authorities. Later films, including Platform (Zhantai) - watch here, earned him a reputation in China as a director who was willing to sacrifice domestic box office success on the altar of foreign festival awards.

Although more recent films such as The World (Shijie) - view here and Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) - view here, displayed a tentative move to more audience friendly fare, it seems that 2009 really is marking something of a turning point for the director.

Not only has he just founded his own studio, completed a fashion shoot called Beijing Spring for the Chinese version of Esquire magazine (Shishang Xiansheng) and filmed an advertisement with China Mobile, but in perhaps the biggest indication of his acceptance into the mainstream of the Chinese film industry and his strengthened connections with China’s film bureaucracy, is the invitation he recently received from Shanghai officials to make a documentary for Expo 2010.

Some of the traits of this new Jia Zhangke can be seen in one of his latest films, 24 City (Ershisi Cheng), an edited version of which hit Chinese screens on March 6. Unlike earlier works that tended to focus on rural concerns and characters, the new film has an urban focus. The film is also much easier to follow and understand than some of his earlier films and 24 City is also faster paced. However it still retains the director’s penchant for combining various artistic forms including in this case contemporary poetry and still photography.

24 City is a strange blend of a film, mixing documentary footage in with a fictional drama portrayed by actors. Through three women’s fictional stories and five worker’s real life experiences, it presents the huge changes that take place at a state-run military factory from 1958 to 2008. Jia interviewed more than 50 workers during the filming, but most of the interviews didn’t make it through to the final edit. It is not hard to distinguish the actors from the real characters in the film, especially given the fact that a few of the actors are quite well-known. I am not saying their acting is bad - actually some of them are pretty good, but the fictional sections of the film can’t help but detract from the audiences ability to connect to the authenticity of the story.

Although it may be regarded as Jia’s attempt to explore the boundary between drama and documentary, others have suggested that this interesting approach of blending documentary with drama has been adopted due to commercial considerations and his decision to recruit well-known actors to perform in a “documentary” is simply an attempt to improve its audience appeal.

Before the official screening, the Shao Foundation organized a small-scale screening and talk with Jia Zhangke and some of the crew that worked on the film. If you are interested in learning a bit more about the film before going to see it, you can read more about that talk here or view the video of the event here.

24 City is currently showing at cinemas around town. Click here or here for screening times (in Chinese only).