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I Wish I Knew
I Wish I Knew
7.4
/10
706 Ratings

I WISH I KNEW

Hai shang chuan qi

Directed by Jia Zhangke
China, 2010
Documentary, History

Synopsis

Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come and go. Eighteen locals, including film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, ex-soldiers and criminals, recall their lives. Their personal experiences, like eighteen chapters of a novel, tell stories of Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010.

Synopsis

Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come and go. Eighteen locals, including film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, ex-soldiers and criminals, recall their lives. Their personal experiences, like eighteen chapters of a novel, tell stories of Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010.

Our take

Marrying city symphony to historical interrogation, Jia Zhangke examines the film industry’s role in the shifting fortunes of Shanghai. With a structuring device that sees actor Zhao Tao roaming local neighborhoods, I Wish I Knew is an oral history of an economic center in a permanent state of flux.