Jackson Booth-Millard I found this Chinese film, like many other foreign language pictures in recent years, in the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I hoped it would be another worthy entry. Basically set in present day modern China, apparently based on real events from the recent past, the film revolves around four characters from vastly different geographical locations of the country, and of different social backgrounds and surroundings. The stories, ranging from the busy southern metropolis of Guangzho and Donggaun to the more rural areas of towns such as Shanxi, see each character committing a random act of violence, and the individual stories focus on their often bizarre reasoning behind them, and whether they can get away with it, or face the consequences. Dahai (Wu Jiang) is an angry miner, enraged by widespread corruption in his village, he decides to take justice into his own hands. Zhou San (Baoqiang Wang) is a rootless migrant who discovers the infinite possibilities of owning a firearm, and it seems that anybody could be his next target. Xiao Yu (Tao Zhao) is a young receptionist who dates a married man man and works at a local sauna, but she is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client, so goes out of her way to make them pay. Xiao Hui (Lanshan Luo) is a young factory worker who goes from one disheartening job to another, and he only faces increasingly degrading circumstances, it is unclear what truly leads him to off the edge. The four overlapping stories of characters going to extremes for different, mostly minor or bizarre reasons, are all interesting, their violent turns are the most memorable moments, and to see how they get on following their kills or whatever, there's a good amount of bloody stuff, it also works as a satirical look at how economic transformation changes people, a great drama. Very good!

Raven-1969 "It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates," wrote Hawthorne, yet darkness wins many battles in four murderous portraits from contemporary China that actually happened. A bold and elusive thief traveling along the margins of society, a gentle and lonely heart worn down by itinerant and mechanical work, a fervent revolutionary upset with corruption and greed, and a solitary soul who longs for a family and yet is surrounded by lust, all find themselves separated from society and the love and fulfillment they strive for. Each lashes out violently at their constraints. Filled with intriguing allusions, impressive depth, compelling themes and fantastic stories, I loved how this film seamlessly wound its way through modern China as well as the human heart. Winner of the best screenplay at Cannes.

d-JCB after finally watching A Touch Of Sin this evening at ACMI with some friends, it's left me stuck in 2 worlds - missing Jia Zhang-Ke's meditative & lyrical work of the past & liking the new approach to these social wrongs in a more brutal / violent / cynical manner... first thoughts were quite similar to when i watched another master film maker Kim Ki-Duk's "Pieta" which after further digestion, thought & reading became my fave film of 2013 - both films show violence in a heavy way but still portray it in a meditative & profound manner, using symbolic moments to remind the audience about these issues... in hindsight i really like this film and where Jia is going with his approach... considering this is a narrative driven film over his powerful and thought provoking documentaries, all the killings were based on real events the director read in blogs... the film is a vessel to show these separate events as one about alienation, the varying classes in china & corruption / political flaws... here's a good article from Slant which covers a lot of how i feel towards the films - 8/10 http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/a-touch-of-sin

JvH48 I saw this film at the Ghent (Belgium) film festival 2013, where it was selected as part of the official Competition. Technically there was nothing wrong with it: shot beautifully, and acted splendidly. However, I could derive no underlying theme other than the under-achievers who were the respective main characters in the four loosely connected stories. Was there otherwise something in common, apart from the fact that all four stories ended in unmitigated violence?? The only shooting that was justified, occurred in the beginning of the story where one motor cyclist was threatened by three men armed with axes, but it was just an isolated incident without a preceding story to explain. All other shooters whose history we followed later on, may have considered themselves above the law, justified in killing around for a just cause. But I did not get their ulterior motives, at least not as being strong enough to arrive at what they did.The festival website mentioned "underclass rage" as binding theme, but that is not sufficient for me. The stories in itself are well told and technically flawless, but one keeps wondering all the time what's the point in this bloodshed. It may be considered social commentary, but it lacks constructive ideas or novel insights. On the positive side, we from outside China get a fresh view on life in China as it is nowadays, giving us the chance to see that it does not look much different when looking from the outside. The landscapes and the cities could have been European or American, if we disregard the obvious fact that all the people there look Chinese. But I don't think a guided tour was the ultimate purpose of the film makers.Speaking of Chinese looks: It was a nice touch that we were allowed to recognize the respective main characters throughout "their" story, this usually being rather difficult for us Europeans, having great problems telling Chinese (and Japanese, for that matter) apart; "they all look alike" is a common statement. In this movie we always had a particular distinguishing mark to assist us in following the main character. I'm not sure it was a deliberate setup by the film makers, to facilitate international distribution, but anyway it helped very much.All in all, this film falls short in delivering the obviously intended message that some people cannot stand being ignored or neglected for too long a time, and thus are bound to eventually "explode" in some way. Another thing that also did not work out, was involving me in the main characters, who seemed to me coming from a different planet and acting illogically. On the other hand, we got a nice view on contemporary China, far away from the touristic sightseeing routes, a seldom chance that we otherwise don't get easily. Very well acted and shot as well. All things considered, I scored a 3 (average) for the audience award when leaving the theater. This film ranked 39th for the audience award, score 3.73 out of 5. And the international jury awarded it for "its musical choice and the combination of traditional and contemporary music".ADDENDUM as of December 2013: I saw this movie twice by accident, while it was programmed as part of the Tiger Friends Preview Event prior to the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Which movie would be screened during this event, was kept secret until the last minute. When it became clear what was about to happen, I did not run away however. It happened to me before that a repeated viewing worked very well to grasp things missed the first time. But alas, in this case it merely amplified my former conclusions. The only change in appreciation was that I liked the first story better than previously. On the other hand, knowing beforehand what was going to happen, the other three stories exposed more inconsistencies than I was aware of the first time. Anyway, the whole experience was not boring, and it still offers a nice view on contemporary China, but that is all there is.