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Zhantai (Platform)

Zhantai (Platform) (2000)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

78

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 1,085

My Rating

Movie Info

The political and social changes that swept China during the 1980s are reflected in the lives of a troupe of musicians in this drama from acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke. In 1979, China is beginning to reinvent itself in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, and change is slowly but surely coming to Fenyang, a small town in the Shanxi province. The influences of the West (pop music, longer hair for men, television, privatization) and the adoption of more modern social conventions (birth

Unrated,

Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

Zhang Ke Jia

Aug 16, 2005

Flach Pyramide International

Cast

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All Critics (25) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (4) | DVD (4)

Awesome filmmaking.

March 14, 2003
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The play of the proscenium against the filmmaker's taste for unmediated reality is fascinating.

March 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
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An intellectually engaging movie.

June 16, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Creates a vivid sense of what it's like to be on the remote fringes of a great state experiment.

June 14, 2002 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
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One of the first masterpieces of the 21st century.

June 14, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tells a specifically Chinese story, and yet it does so in a completely universal way.

September 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Impressive though slow moving epic.

August 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A laconic portrait of a remote Chinese city in arrested development.

May 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

'The Wait Seems Never-Ending,' is how the title song from Platform goes, and the 155-minute film surely tries one's patience, but the end (which does finally come) is almost worth that wait.

October 21, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

More meaningful to a Chinese audience than an American one.

March 18, 2003 Full Review Source: Offoffoff
Offoffoff

Comatose is the operative word here.

March 16, 2003 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

A small masterpiece of exquisitely subtle filmmaking.

March 13, 2003 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Pleasingly ambivalent towards the impact of historical forces on ordinary lives.

August 5, 2002 Full Review Source: BBC

With its long, patient scenes, Jia's film captures the sleepy rhythms of this town and the confusion of these young people who are constrained by cultural forces far beyond their ken.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY
eye WEEKLY

The film is deadly dull. Tedious.

June 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies
Jam! Movies

Audience Reviews for Zhantai (Platform)

Great bit of story telling from Zhang Ke Jia. It is a depiction of China in a moment of transition moving from Mao to the free market beliefs of his successors. Through the eyes of a theatre troupe, it is compelling film making.
February 14, 2012
John Ballantine

Super Reviewer

Ok, I get it..but i had to endure 3 hours of my life watching this!!! Slower than thick syrup, this film drags and is acted with minimal flair--- there is very little character development, and most of the film is either someone smoking or long shots of the surroundings...the story supposedly covers about 11 years, but the pacing makes it seem like a couple generations. In my opinion this film is not worth all the praise it has received--- it does not entertain, and the message it conveys could have been delivered in a film half the time with greater effect. See 'luxury car' or 'lost in beijing' and you will pretty much get the same benefit, and enjoy watching the movie in the process:)
April 17, 2010
alanjayh
alan jay

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Platform (Zhantai) (DE)
  • Platform (Zhantai) (UK)
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