80
It's a splendid microcosm of contemporary China's aspirations and shortcomings.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
If a movie can be stark and rapturous at the same time, this is that movie.
70
While the film feels overlong at two hours 20 minutes, there's a seductive stillness to its enveloping mood.
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This is a brilliant, if challenging, film.
80
On a first viewing, the movie seemed a dilution of the formal strategies Jia had perfected-at once less dispassionate and less empathetic. After a repeat viewing, it still strikes me as Jia's fourth-best film (that it's one of the year's best says plenty about the level at which he's working), but it's more apparent that The Worl d's muffled emotional impact should be understood as a function of its setting.
50
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
The World has a pokey pace, but it presents a uniquely powerful look at the new big kid in the global economy.
80
Maverick Chinese director Jia Zhangke examines the rapidly changing face of China as its economy edges further toward a modified form of market capitalism with yet another complex, multicharacter masterpiece.
70
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Loosely constructed, The World drifts along pleasantly for much of its two-and-a-half-hour running time. Mr. Jia has a terrific eye and an almost sculptural sense of film space (especially in close quarters), and he brings texture and density to even the most nondescript rooms.
50
The World's dull weave of frustrated romances and worker exploitation is far too obvious, and Jia can only relieve the tedium so many times.
63
Jia's message is that globalization has failed to help the Chinese masses. We hear you, dude, but did you really need 143 minutes to get your point across?