When you drive through the suburbs of Beijing, or through most of eastern China for that matter, you are struck by its bleakness: grey and brown, flat, ugly, industrialised, big square building blocks covered in bathroom tiles, and fog or smog practically the whole year round. In this perfect illustration of the post-modern wasteland, young people are shown to have no hopes, no illusions. Love is unattainable, communication is impossible. Superficial talk over cell phones is the most intimate they can get. When meeting face to face, they have nothing to say.<br /><br />The World theme park is a metaphor for the lack of cultural identity that's rampant in China these days. Against the background of this ersatz world, a number of protagonists are followed through a variety of sub-plots, very much like Altman in some of his best (Nashville, Short cuts) and worst (The wedding, A perfect couple) work. As a visual evocation of modern Chinese urban life it's striking. But the characters evolving against this canvas remain underdeveloped. They meet and say nothing, they do not meet but talk by cell phone, still saying nothing. Silence can be very telling, if used properly. But one should not confuse silence with depth.<br /><br />It is said that traditional values have all but disappeared in China, and all that's come in their place are blatant money-grabbing capitalism where a human life is of little value (look at all those mine disasters) and superficial imitation of an idea of Western "culture" copied from TV. But in my personal experience, Chinese people like to talk, they are not afraid to show their feelings. I often find them much more open than many European people I meet.<br /><br />To me, Shijie shows a realistic picture of the way modern urban China comes across visually, but I cannot recognise the Chinese people in it.