Director: Jia Zhang-Ke
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 0.5
Three part "examination" of Chinese history - in the years 1999, 2014 and the "future," 2025 - that begins with a love triangle, as two men battle for the affection of supposedly gorgeous Tao (Zhao Tao). It's emotionally and intellectually hollow (with some horrifically bad acting), becoming a dreadful chore once it hits the 2025 segment when Tao's adult son, Dollar (Dong Zijian) begins an affair with his teacher (?), argues with his gun-toting Dad (Zhang Yi) and flees Australia to (presumably?) look for his birth mother, who's busy doing Tai Chi in the snow. It's a complete mess script-wise, even losing track of characters along the way, and one has to wonder whether or not Ms. Tao is a proper casting choice aside from the fact she's married to the director (she only shows a modicum of emotion with the death of her father ... a character who's never developed in the first place). According to this, in a less than a decade the U.S. Dollar is going to be almost worthless, so I should probably invest in a good tent, buy stock in Asian companies and read up on how to forage (just in case, right?).
