The World () is a 2004 Chinese film written and directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Zhao Tao and Cheng Taishen. It was his first film shot outside his hometown of Shanxi Province, and also the first of his works to be granted official production approval by the Chinese government.
The film blends documentary-style cinematography with animation and electronic music. Scholar David Richler notes that Jia Zhangke departs from his usual observational realism in The World, incorporating computer animation and digital effects, to express emotional dislocation and imagined mobility.
The inspiration for The World came from a 2003 conversation between Jia and Zhao Tao, in which she recounted her experience working as a dancer at Shenzhen's "Window of the World", a theme park filled with miniature versions of international landmarks. This inspired Jia to explore the gap between fantasy and reality for China's urban underclass and the symbolic role of such theme parks in shaping the spectacle of globalization. However, the film was ultimately set in Beijing World Park, a similar attraction on the outskirts of the capital.
The film is set in early 21st-century China, during a time of accelerated integration into the social transformation of globalization. It follows a group of young rural migrants, including performers and security guards working at World Park, and some construction workers employed elsewhere in the city. The migrant's lives are swept up in the spectacle of modernization and global consumer culture, and their personal dreams frequently clash with structural realities. Despite a glamorous surface built for tourist consumption, their jobs are low-paid, repetitive, and precarious, trapping them in cycles of emotional isolation, unstable employment, and social marginalization. Through the spatial logic and symbolic function of the theme park, Zhangke presents a lived condition in which the promise of freely traversing The World masks a reality of constrained mobility.
The World premiered in competition at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2004, and received critical acclaim for its portrayal of structural limitations and class immobility in contemporary Chinese urban life.
Plot At Beijing World Park, performer Tao is visited by her ex-boyfriend en route to Ulaanbaatar. Her boyfriend Taisheng, a security guard, becomes jealous and attempts to coerce her into having sex with him; their relationship becomes strained as a result. Taisheng is also busy helping fellow migrants from his home province of Shanxi. Chen Zhijun, an introverted childhood friend of Taisheng's, arrives at the park. He eventually finds work as a construction worker.
Tao becomes unlikely friends with Anna, one of the World Park's Russian performers, even though Anna speaks no Chinese and Tao no Russian. Anna confesses to Tao that she will quit her job for a better paying one in order to afford a trip to Ulaanbaatar, where her sister lives. Later, Tao runs into Anna at a club and realizes that she has become a prostitute. Anna runs away in shame as Tao bursts into tears. Meanwhile, Taisheng is asked by an associate to drive a seamstress named Qun to Taiyuan to collect a debt, and eventually becomes attracted to her. The two often meet at her shop, where she tells him about her husband who illegally emigrated to France years ago. Since then she has tried with some difficulty to join him. Taisheng attempts to pursue her but she rejects him.
Taisheng eventually convinces Tao to have sex with him; Tao threatens afterwards that she will kill him if he ever betrays her. His life, however, quickly spirals out of control when Chen is killed in a construction accident due to overworking. Some time later, Wei and Niu, two other performers at World Park, announce that they plan to wed despite Niu being dangerously jealous and unstable. At the wedding, Tao discovers a text-message to Taisheng from Qun, who is at last leaving for France, saying that their meeting and relationship was destined. Believing that Taisheng has indeed betrayed her, a devastated Tao cuts off contact with him while she house-sits for Wei and Niu. When Taisheng goes to visit her, she ignores him. The two succumb to a gas leak in the apartment later. As the film fades to black, Taisheng asks through a voiceover whether they are dead, to which Tao responds that they are not and it is only the beginning.
Cast Zhao Tao as Tao, the film's heroine, a young woman and a performer at the Beijing World Park. Tao is a migrant from Shanxi province who works as a dancer-entertainer in the theme park, and is shown dressed as an airline hostess and later as a bride in a white wedding gown.Gaetano, Arianne (2009). "Rural Woman and Modernity in Globalizing China: Seeing Jia Zhangke's The World". Visual Anthropology Review. 25 (1): 1–15. The character Tao was inspired by Zhao Tao's own real-life experience working as a performer at the "Window of the World" theme park in Shenzhen.Zhong, Jin (2006). "Dialogue: World Picture of the Globalization Era and Personal Impression – A Record of the Visit to Film Stars and Directors in the Film The World". Shanghai Film. pp. 33–36. Zhao Tao's acting style in the film is largely improvisational, with the director allowing her to freely interpret lines and scenes; some scenes were shot in 10 to 15 different versions.Zhong, Jin (2006). p. 4. The opening scene features Tao dressed as an Indian dancer, walking through the corridors of the park.Frodon, Jean-Michel (2021). The World of Jia Zhangke (trans. Kong Qian). Guangxi Normal University Press. (Original work published 2015). Chen Taisheng as Taisheng, a Shanxi-native who has lived in Beijing for three years. Taisheng works as a security guard captain at the World Park. He has become something of a fixture for Shanxi migrants who come to him looking for a place to work. Chen Taisheng collaborated with Jia Zhangke for the first time in this film, preparing extensively through script analysis in contrast to Zhao Tao's improvisational style. Chen and Jia had originally agreed to work together ten years earlier, when both were studying in Beijing, but the collaboration was delayed due to funding issues. Jing Jue as Wei, one of Tao's fellow performers. Jiang Zhongwei as Niu, another performer and Wei's possessive and paranoid boyfriend. Huang Yiqun as Qun, a native of Wenzhou, Qun operates a clothing shop, Taisheng's mistress. Wang Hongwei as Sanlai, a friend of Taisheng's and another Shanxi native. Ji Shuai as Erxiao, a Shanxi native and Taisheng's cousin, whom Taisheng has gotten a job as a security guard at World Park. Erxiao is later fired for stealing from the performers while they are on stage. Xiang Wan as Youyou, another performer, Youyou carries on an affair with the park's director and parleys it into a promotion to troupe director. Alla Shcherbakova as Anna, a Russian immigrant and performer at World Park. Han Sanming as Sanming, a relative of Little Sister who comes to Beijing after his death to help his family collect compensation. Sanming reappears in Still Life, Jia's follow-up to The World, this time as a lead actor.
Production The World was a joint-production by Jia Zhangke's own Xstream Pictures, Japan's Office Kitano, and France's Lumen Films. It received additional financial support from the Shanghai Film Studio and several Japanese corporations including Bandai Visual and Tokyo FM, among others.
The film's nascence began after Jia had lived in Beijing for several years in 2000. After two films based in his native province of Shanxi, Jia decided to make a film about his impressions of Beijing as a world city, after a cousin back home asked him about life in a metropolitan environment. Jia, however, would not began writing the screenplay until after the release of his next film Unknown Pleasures, in 2003 during the SARS outbreak. The screenplay took approximately a year to write, over which time the story slowly changed, such that it became harder to distinguish the fact that it took place in Beijing, and the focus of the setting shifted to that of any large city with many migrants in it. Filming of The World took place on location at the actual Beijing World Park, as well as at an older but similar park, Window of the World, that sometimes served as a stand-in and is located in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The World sets the scene in a World park in Beijing, the capital of China, to present China's desires and ongoing process of becoming a new global center, and the famous buildings from different countries of smaller sizes are to show a united and harmonious world. Jia is a migrant from Fenyang, Shanxi to Beijing, in his interview he said he "wants to focus on my viewpoint on big cities". This miniature of a world inside the park presents the migrants wave as a significant global issue.
The film was shot quickly and cheaply in real locations, using nonprofessional actors alongside professional ones. Jia employed a realistic storytelling method that allowed actors' emotions to develop naturally.The visual style also includes long, slow shots of people wandering through urban scenes, a technique Jia has compared to Michelangelo Antonioni.Moura, Hudson (2011). "Subtitling Jia Zhangke's Films: Intermediality, Digital Technology, and the Varieties of Foreignness in Global Cinema". In Rohit Chopra & Radhika Gajjala (eds.), Global Media, Culture, and Identity. Routledge. pp. 3-13.
The film is divided into four chapters, each introduced by an intertitle: "Paris in Beijing Suburb," "Ulan Bator Night," "Tokyo Story," and "Ever Changing World." In one scene, Tao and Anna, a Russian dancer, speak their own languages without translation, which highlights the film's use of subtitles as a narrative tool rather than just a technical device.
Jia has described The World as a film about "leaving and breaking away from bondage" — from family, hometown, and state institutions. He began writing the script in 2003 during the SARS outbreak, when he was confined to Beijing and noticed real estate ads with names like "Garden of Rome" and "Forest of Vancouver." These observations directly inspired the film's theme park concept.Andrew, Dudley (2009). "Interview With Jia Zhang-ke". Film Quarterly. 62 (4): 80–83. p. 4.
Jia relied heavily on digital video (DV) technology during filming, which allowed him to work quickly and in public spaces without attracting official attention. The documentary-like style of DV, combined with the use of non-professional actors, gave the film a strong sense of realism.
The production also made extensive use of digital animation. When characters receive text messages on their cell phones, the messages trigger flash animations that represent their inner thoughts and desires. Jia has said these animations were not decorative but intended to reflect how digital technology has become part of everyday life in contemporary China.
Legitimization As Jia Zhangke's first film made with the consent of the Chinese Film Bureau, many felt that Jia's hand would be unduly restricted by Communist bureaucrats. As it turned out, Jia claimed that the main impact of government approval was the ability to screen abroad and at home without major obstacles; Jia stated that, Jia attributed the loosening of restrictions as part of the Film Bureau's overall liberalization and acceptance of so-called "outside directors." Outside observers agreed with Jia's assessment, dismissing claims that Jia had compromised his principles and "sold out." One definite result of working within the system, however, was that the film became much easier to produce, as Jia no longer had to worry about interference from the central government or from local officials.