Arthouse hero's 20-year opus gets release
Jia Zhangke's latest film reflects on changes of recent decades through carefully assembled moments of unscheduled life and emotion, Xu Fan reports.
The crisis provided him with an unexpected pause to delve deeper into observing the era of the internet, whose development was not impeded by the pandemic. In fact, Jia says that the internet thrived.
In 2022, he was invited to host Do Not Answer, a sci-fi talk show that facilitates engaging discussions about the future with well-known figures, including China's first Hugo Award winner in 2015, sci-fi writer Liu Cixin. The topics range widely, from interstellar travel to artificial intelligence.
Stimulated by the program, Jia began thinking about AI more deeply. He believes it may help eliminate language barriers between countries in the future, but may also weaken the emotional bonds between people.
"In the era of letter writing, when you missed a friend or a loved one, composing a letter took two or three hours. By the time you sent it from the post office and received a reply, it could take up to half a month. During that period, what developed was a shared experience of longing and concern. However, instant video chat diminishes the intensity of such emotions," he explains.
