If you’re looking for a new ultra-violent masterpiece from China, be on the look out for Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin. The film – which stars Wu Jiang (Dragon), Vivien Li (The Guillotines) and Lanshan Luo – revolves around four brutal tales set in different geographical settings across modern-day China.
Nominated for the Palme d’Or and winner of Best Screenplay at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, it should be noted that A Touch of Sin is a departure from Zhangke’s more meditative films. The New York Times called Zhangke “One of the World’s Most Important Filmmakers” for his 2006 film Still Life, an almost documentary-style movie about people who returned to a flooded town to salvage what they can and say good-bye to things they lost.
Both acclaimed and controversial, A Touch of Sin (a nod to King Hu’s 1969 action classic, A Touch of Zen) has been compared to the works of Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino. There’s no set release date, but the trailer has been available for some time.
Updates: Newest trailer. Deadline reports that Kino Lorber will release the film on October 4 in New York, following its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. | Newest poster.
BREAKING NEWS: You can now pre-order Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin. Kino Lorber is releasing the highly-anticipated, ultra-violent film on Blu-ray and DVD on March 18, 2014.