Motherspot Xiao Wu is to me an incredible lively film.It's like the viewer is totally a part of the scenes he is seeing.the director is a genius in giving you the real-life sense.The raw way of the photography gives you an honest picture of a certain time in China's history... we follow a petty thief Xiau Wu in his 'struggle 'to survive.... everyone around him , his mates from the scenes have all sworn off their criminal pasts and are on the road to be normal citizens...not Xia Wu however.He seems not to be able to break with his 'old'life. What this film shows us in an incredible way to is a piece of Recent Chinese history...the emerging of private enterprise...filmed in the mid 90-ies we as viewers are made very much part of these developments. an excellent and very capturing film in every way ! great job done by the all amateur actors cast.Zhang Ke Jia did an unique job here !

Robert_Woodward Xiao Wu is a pickpocket in Beijing. Stuck on the bottom rung of the criminal ladder despite his advance into adult years, he heads a small group of thieving street urchins who haunt the back streets of the city. Xiao Wu is a surly character, prone to throwing away his cigarette ends when in other people's homes. His time is whiled away with games of Mahjong and American pool played out in the street and he has few close friends.Xiao Wu's brother, Xiao Yong, once himself a petty thief, is now a cigarette trader and brothel-owner. Xiao Yong, shamed by his criminal roots and his brother's failure to move on from the same position, excludes Xiao Wu from his wedding invitations and refuses to accept his wedding gift of ill-gotten money. Later on, Xiao Wu also discovers the shame that his hardworking parents feel for their pickpocket son.A sense develops that the world is moving on and that Xiao Wu is being left behind; this is increased by the ongoing police-led evictions from the street where he spends much of his time – a new building project is on its way. Xiao Wu finds a glimmer of hope in his encounters with Mei Mei, an employee at the local brothel. The taciturn pickpocket opens up a little in her presence and the two of them bond, somewhat oddly from a Western perspective, through karaoke singing. Xiao Wu suddenly finds his singing voice when alone in a bathhouse; his plain voice resounds poignantly in the large, grimy, empty room. It is a rare moment of beauty.When Xiao Wu buys a pager (state of the art in 1997) to keep in touch with Mei Mei it seems that he is starting to open up just a little to the changing world. But Mei Mei's sudden disappearance, along with his alienation from his family, leaves Xiao Wu without direction. A grim lack of purpose takes hold again. In the final frames of the film he is publicly humiliated, bringing the story to a sad end.The footage in this film is much grainier than many people made be used to, but this is not necessarily a weakness: the image quality suits the grey, dilapidated city streets. The hand-held camera adds intimacy to the karaoke scenes and captures the distance between the two brothers as they walk separately through the same streets. The muffled state of the soundtrack takes some getting used to, but writer-director Zhang Ke Jia was clearly working on a limited budget for his first feature. The non-professional cast, however, is surprisingly effective; Hong Wei Wang is a real find, exuding a seedy charm in the lead role.The Artificial Eye DVD which I watched this film on did not provide subtitles for many of the voices on radio and television, nor for some of the secondary characters, but there is an enormous amount of visual detail to take in as well. China simply does not feature enough on cinema screens, but this fine film suggests hope for the future.

Harry T. Yung Interesting to discover director Jai Zhangke not in a Chinese film festival, but in the "Le French May" program. Sharing my time between him and Alain Delon, I ended up watching only two of his movies shown in this series, his latest "Shijie" (2004) and earliest "Xiao Wu" (1997), in that order. I'll catch "Zhantai" (Platform) (2000) and "Ren Xiao Yao" (Unknown Pleasure) (2002) on some other occasions.I agree with some of the views expressed in IMDb that Shijie has become somewhat commercialized, losing some of the rough innocence of the earlier three, which could be collectively referred to as the Fengyang trilogy, Fengyang being director Jia's hometown.With a perpetual expression of "I don't give a damn" written on his face, Xiao Wu is a loser personified. Hidden behind this mask of force field (apologies for a really inappropriately borrowed term but I'm just too caught up with the second coming of the Force) is the young man's insecurity, frustration and alienation.Xiao Wu makes a big deal out of not being invited to a ex-fellow-pickpocket-buddy's wedding because he can't understand why somebody no better than he can all of a sudden become a role model of a successful entrepreneur. He spends fifty yuans on a karaoke girl and insists on getting full value, not for sex, but just for her time to accompany him all over town. Actually he ends up accompanying her to her hairdresser. Her sickness provides an opportunity to bring out the hidden kindness in Xian Wu and, for a moment, what looks like a tender romance seems promising, until she goes away, unannounced, with a rich man from Shanxi. Later we also get to see his complete alienation with his family.The last scene, the petty thief picked up by the impersonal but reasonable authority, appears on the surface to be quite inconsequential but is deep down most heart-breakingly tragic.

cd1793 Xiaowu is an average young man in a typical small town in China. He is shy, stubborn, values friendship, sometimes vanity-driven, sometimes even romantic. And he is a pick-pocket.It is surprising that although hundreds of millions of people lead their lives like xiaowu, "Xiao Wu" is the first candid depiction of their life in the many years of chinese filmmaking. I was particularly struck by the camera's honesty: run-down buildings along littered streets, filthy public bath places, hidden brothels camouflaged as karaoke shops...As the country opens up for economical changes, some people have "their own ways" to take advantage of the change and became rich, while the rest struggle to make a living. The film provided vivid portraits of people you probably know or have heard of: the former pick-pocket buddy of xiaowu who became a famous entrepreneur and grew ashamed of having a friend who picks pockets; the girl who works at a Karaoke but tells her mom that she's at school, who dreams of becoming a star and fell in love with xiaowu but eventually "contracted" herself to a rich man from Shan Xi...Even if you are not particularly interested in the setting of the film, the universal conflict of dignity and making a living, vanity and friendship, dream and reality, makes this film very interesting to watch.Bravo, Jia ZhangKe! I give this film a 10/10 for being the first of a genre that will shine in chinese cinema.