Michel's character in Pickpocket seems to gets a sort of erotic gratification and psycho-sexual release when stealing from others: To stand extremely close to his victims to feel their light breathing and subtle body movements and reactions. The reasoning is immoral, but the characters claim special privileges above and beyond common morality." Robert Bresson is considered one of the great masters in the art form of the cinema and most of his films center around such spiritual themes which include salvation, sin, redemption, morality and the defining and revealing of the human soul. Pickpocket is considered a contemporary version of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment as film critic Roger Ebert states, "Bresson's Michel, like Dostoyevsky's hero Raskolnikov, needs money in order to realize his dreams, and sees no reason why some lackluster ordinary person should not be forced to supply it. Michel is a professional pickpocket and thief, a character who leaves a completely isolated life emotionally detached from others and of the outside world. The main protagonist is named Michel a man whose looks are very ordinary and plain is neither handsome nor ugly and has the perfect demeanour to blend into the background, and disappear within a crowd unnoticed. I find these opening credits a curious irony because Robert Bresson's Pickpocket 'is' a thriller just not the standard thriller most people are used to experiencing. Using image and sound, the filmmaker strives to express the nightmare of a young man whose weaknesses lead him to commit acts of theft for which nothing destined him." Xiao Wu is one of the best films of the 90s."The style of this film is not that of a thriller. It is a scene of personal tragedy, but in the universality of its compassion, it becomes a spiritual revelation. In a final sequence, he is shown after his arrest, not as a victim or hero, but as an off-screen object to be gazed at and mocked by people in the street. After Mei Mei leaves him, things seem to spiral downward for Wu. One of the most revealing scenes is when Wu stubbornly refuses to sing with Mei Mei at the karaoke bar but instead goes to a bathhouse and, alone and naked, sings a plaintive song to the empty room. His film succeeds not only as social commentary but also as an acutely perceptive realization of the psychology of a self-absorbed individual. This is life as it is actually lived, not as a series of dramatic events forced into a narrative structure. Jia captures the rhythm and feel of day-to-day life in Fengyang. He grows increasingly alienated and lonely as he loses his friends who go straight, his girl friend Mei Mei who leaves town, and his family who eject him after an argument over a ring. Wu seems bewildered by the fact that his friends do not want to associate with him and he is unable to grasp the meaning of the police crackdown. In the background, the government has issued an order to round up street criminals. With no other work to fall back on, Wu is forced to continue his petty crimes, constantly running afoul of the police. The scene between the two old friends discussing the wedding is heartbreaking in the look of rejection on Wu's face. He even returns Wu's gift of money because it is "tainted". His best friend, Jin Xiao Yong has just been voted a "Model Entrepreneur" for his activities in cigarette trafficking and does not invite Wu to his wedding. Wu's friends have given up the life of crime and do not want to have anymore to do with him. He befriends Mei Mei (Hao Hongjian), and they start to develop a tentative relationship but his social awkwardness leads to ultimate rejection. Xiao Wu (Hong Wei Wang) wanders about aimlessly with lots of money to spend and little to spend it on except call girls at the local karaoke bar. The film is reminiscent of the works of Robert Bresson in its use of non-professional actors, environmental sound, and in its spare cinematography by Yu Lik-Wai. It is a compelling portrait of an individual in free-fall and, like other films by the director, shows the corrupting influence of Western values on an entire generation of Chinese. Set in Jia's home city of Fengyang in Shanxi province, the film is basically a series of incidents in the life of petty thief and pickpocket, Xiao Wu. Having to cope with a dysfunctional society, we take refuge in solitude which is a substitute for dignity It is finally a film about my native town and about contemporary China." - Jia Zhangke A sense of longing permeates Xiao Wu, a 1997 film by the acclaimed independent Chinese director Jia Zhangke (Platform, Unknown Pleasures). "This is a film about our worries and our uneasiness.
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