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I Wish I Knew

Play trailer Poster for I Wish I Knew 2020 2h 5m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Shanghai's people and architecture, from the 1800s until today.
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I Wish I Knew

Critics Reviews

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Robert Abele Los Angeles Times 02/13/2020
The resulting mix of image and interview, weariness and wonder, makes for a sober assessment of just how much change China's largest city has been through since the 1930s... Go to Full Review
Jonathan Romney Film Comment Magazine 01/24/2020
A
Ending a minor but fascinating film in Jia's provocative oeuvre, the images of these sleepers are a prelude to the other troubled dreams of China (A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart, Ash Is the Purest White) that he has made since. Go to Full Review
Glenn Kenny RogerEbert.com 01/24/2020
3/4
I Wish I Knew functions as an admirable cinematic tone poem about a place and its times. Go to Full Review
Mattie Lucas From the Front Row 04/27/2020
3.5/4
A city symphony in a minor key, reminiscent of Pennebaker and Ruttman, that searches for the soul of a people and finds a microcosm of a century of upheaval and uncertainty. Go to Full Review
Dave Platt Battleship Pretension 02/20/2020
Jia has a gift for exposing the underside of words like 'development', 'progress' or 'revolution', abstract political or economic programs that manifest at the cost of people's physical and cultural displacement. Go to Full Review
Joshua Brunsting The CriterionCast 01/31/2020
Making its theatrical debut stateside a decade after bowing at the Cannes Film Festival, Jia Zhangke's documentary is a masterpiece worthy of (re)discovery. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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09/12/2011 Best film from Jia in recent years. A larger theme spanning over centuries during the modernisation of China. Interviewed many people who talked about their parents' tales during the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War. I can probably talk as much as my parents were of that generation. See more 05/14/2011 Most interviewees are representative of the time they spoke of, be it the inter- or civil war years, the cultural revolution, the great leap forward or the open door era starting from late â~70s. Yet, the film is not capable of adequately capturing the rapid socio-political changes and how such changes have derailed the fate and impacted existential conditions of most Chinese, if it is director Jia Zhangkeâ(TM)s intention. While Jia was commissioned by Shanghai authorities to produce this documentary, I trust that he was not compromising his conscience in art for the purpose of publicising the 2010 expo. It is exciting to see the people including some who have become of the history shared their affection and first-hand experience in those turbulent days and troubled times. No matter how solid their background was and how much they loved the country, he or she had inevitably drowned in the mighty current of the times, and suffered. I Wish I Knew is a documentary slightly âdramatizedâ? by whom it had interviewed, making it an alternative to Jiaâ(TM)s other simple and unadorned films for the ordinary people. Hope this forms a good transition for Jia in moving forward to subject matters and genres he is concerned most. See more 04/16/2011 å<ä¸-çä¿,å'ªè 1/2å 3/4-太快ï 1/4å?å<å<æ-¹å?'ä¿,å'ªå±ï 1/4 See more 02/26/2011 The (mostly twentieth-century) history/life of Shanghai, told by/through some of its noteworthy inhabitants/participants or their offspring, and some of its films. There's no doubt that the bourgeoisie/nationalists/fascists/capitalists are shallow/decadent/corrupt, and the communists (there may be no more left in China today) are virtuous/heroic. See more 02/06/2011 Belles images... intà (C)ressant... See more 01/23/2011 Very boring. Different stories and point of views. Cultural and historical details. The pacing is very slow and flat. See more Read all reviews
I Wish I Knew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Shanghai's people and architecture, from the 1800s until today.
Director
Zhang-Ke Jia
Screenwriter
Zhang-Ke Jia
Distributor
Kino Lorber
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 14, 2020, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 30, 2020
Runtime
2h 5m
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