Snoozing on a Platform

Platform is a boring film.

Platform portrays the lives of a small performance troupe during a transitional time in China’s history. The troupe is in a state of limbo, not sure what they should be performing now that Maoist plays are no longer popular, and are often stuck doing nothing at all. The director’s goal with this film was to portray their day-to-day lives and the drudgery involved.

In other words,
Platform is a boring film because the director wanted it to be.

Jia Zhangke wanted to show the lives of the Chinese during an era of uncertainty, but he takes the idea too far. Anytime there is any scene that may have an inkling of interest, the director purposefully skips it. Relationships, weddings, fights, or anything that a typical film would dwell on are referenced vaguely or not at all.

Very little of this is to the film’s benefit. While the film won many awards for its artistic rendition, it is not an easily viewable film and very few mainstream audience members would willingly sit down to watch it. Jia Zhangke takes his “artistry” too far. He certainly succeeds in making a boring film, but loses his point along the way. In trying to put on film about the slowness and dullness of the character’s lives, these characteristics spread to the movie as a whole. Unique portrayals in movies are like garlic in a pasta dish – a little can add a lot of flavor, but put in too much and nobody will eat it.

In all fairness, Platform does contain beautiful scenic, if colorless, shots. In one particularly jarring and eye catching scene, the performance troupe tries to catch a train, yelling desperately as they watch the train roll away, the expanse of track and emptiness stretching out behind them. Once again, though, these types of scenes can be used to highlight a particularly intense or desolate scene, but when used throughout most of the film, they lose their effect.

In some sense, Jia Zhangke achieved his goal, if you pay attention enough. But the film is made to give a sense of tediousness and monotony, and this makes the viewer lose sight of the fact that tedium is the point. Instead, they leave the film wondering what the point was – if they finish it at all.