I Wish I Knew

Shanghai's past and present flow together in Jia Zhangke's (A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart) poetic and poignant I Wish I Knew, a portrait of this fast-changing port city. Restoring censored images and filling in forgotten facts, Jia provides an alternative version of 20th-century China's fraught history as reflected through life in the Yangtze city. He builds his narrative through a series of eighteen interviews with people from all walks of life-politicians' children, exsoldiers, criminals, and artists (including the masterful Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien)-while returning regularly to the image of his favorite lead actress, Zhao Tao (Ash Is Purest White), wandering through the Shanghai World Expo Park.