A Touch of Sin (2013)

A Touch of Sin is an enigma. Prior to this, I had not seen any of Jia Zhangke's films, and from what I have read, this one marks a departure with the style of his earlier ones. Consisting of four mostly unrelated (and supposedly true) stories, A Touch of Sin explores the dark underbelly of China's economic and political rise. Make no mistake, this is dark territory. Each story ultimately culminates in an act of brutal violence, and the characters are men and women living on the fringes of society, who have to deal with corruption, poverty, and injustice. So what is it that makes this film so challenging? Perhaps it is that Jia tells his stories using the parts other storytellers usually leave out. Instead of a plot that develops point-by-point, he instead uses the spaces in between those points to tell his stories. The characters do things, but Jia does not explain why. The viewer must come to their own conclusions. But at the same time, he is not inaccessible, and balances out the more challenging elements of his work with moments of dark humor and genuine emotion. Much of the confusion and polarization surrounding the film is around the feeling that it is like a puzzle missing certain pieces. The stories do not connect, yet they do, or at least the first three. But then the fourth is totally self-contained. Why? Is there a deliberate reason for this, or is it a smokescreen? And then there are other tiny things, like why does the main character of the second story wear a Chicago Bulls beanie (the story ends with him riding a motorcycle behind a truck full of bulls)? These little details certainly bring a level of verisimilitude to the film, but then there are times when it veers into the allegorical. Why? Perhaps the answer is that it just is.