Art College 1994 (Animation, Asia Pacific)
Key Cast: Bi Gan, Jia Zhangke
Director: Liu Jian
Producer: Yang Cheng
Screenwriter: Lin Shan, Liu Jian
Composer: Alex Liu, Chen Li, Cui Jian, David Wen-Wei Liang, Yunfan Sun
Beloved auteurs Jia Zhang-ke (A Touch of Sin, MIFF 2013) and Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, MIFF 2018) join the voice cast for this acerbic animated wonder about Chinese art students facing a rapidly changing world.
It’s the early 90s; China is transitioning into a market economy, and Western culture is slowly piercing the country’s veil of traditionalist thinking. Grungy chain-smoker Xiaojun and garrulous Rabbit, two students at the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts, are collaborating on a work – what they hope will be their ‘masterpiece’. But instead, crossing paths with a bunch of other creative dreamers, they end up ruminating on the sudden influx of new, progressive ideas; the true meaning of art; ageing; their crushes; and the tragedy of being a young, tortured artist.
Painter-turned-filmmaker Liu Jian’s first feature Have a Nice Day (MIFF 2017), which offered a snapshot of China’s grimy underworld, immediately established itself as a cult hit. In this follow-up, he takes a decidedly more discursive route – at once romantic and reminiscent of the free-flowing philosophy of Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly, MIFF 2006) – crafting a winding tale of youth that dazzles with its meticulous, painterly renditions.
“Wistful … Like a lost graphic novel you find in a dive bar and love until the pages fall apart.” – Hollywood Reporter