The RAS is pleased to announce the next film screening: on 29 October, we will watch A Touch of Sin, written and directed by renowned Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯), "one of the best and most important film makers in the world".

The film consists of four geographically diverse stories that are based on real-life events in China. In Shanxi, Jia's home province, a desolate miner Dahai, enraged by corruption, goes on a rampage against his village chief and the mine boss. Cornered and marginalized, he takes justice into his own hands. On the riverbank of neon-sheen Chongqing lies a displaced village where Zhou San and his family reside. Zhou sends money home from wherever he goes, yet always carries a gun. Xiao Yu, a receptionist at a massage parlor along the Yangtze River, declares an ultimatum to her married lover. He leaves her for Guangzhou while she continues with her evening shift. In Southern China's Dongguan, a metropolis bustling with new factories and frequented by wealthy businessmen, comes Xiao Hui, a migrant worker from Hunan. He falls in love with a native of his home province, a young woman dressed in exotic costumes who entertains clients at a night club. Does he find true love?

Manohla Dargis from The New York Times describes the film as "a blistering fictionalized tale … a story has the urgency of a screaming headline but one inscribed with visual lyricism, [and) emotional weight." The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the award for Best Screenplay. In 2017, The New York Times chose the film as "one of the best 25 films of the 21 century".