A Touch of Sin 天注定 (2013): Why You Should Watch This Banned Chinese-Language (Mandarin) Film
In 2013, a Chinese-language film shocked the world at the Cannes Film Festival. It won the festival's Best Screenplay award. It received five Golden Horse nominations, including Best Feature Film and Best Director. International critics called it "Jia Zhangke's best work." But it was never released in mainland Chinese theaters. You could watch it in France. You could watch it in Japan. You could even watch it in Taiwan. But you could not watch it on the big screen in mainland China. That film is A Touch of Sin . Today, I want to talk about this film — and why it remains a hidden gem to this day. Part One: A Film That Doesn't "Exist" A Touch of Sin is composed of four stories. They are independent yet connected, spanning across China — Shanxi, Chongqing, Hubei, Guangdong. These four stories are not fiction. They are all based on real social events that shocked the nation in the early decades of the 21st century: the Hu Wenhai incident in Shanxi, the Zhou...