Platform

Name: Platform
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2001-08-29
Duration: 155 min
Rating: 5
Cast: Zhao Tao, Wang Bo, Wang Hongwei, Yang Lina, Liang Jingdong

Rating

5.0 (1)

Release Date

8/29/2001

Runtime

155 mins

Genres

Drama History

Overview

China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.

Status

Released

Original Language

Chinese

Budget

Revenue

Homepage

How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A long, patient chronicle of how ideology and economic upheaval reshape the lives and art of a theater troupe across a decade of Chinese transformation. The film moves with the unhurried pace of memory itself, accumulating small moments of connection and loss.

Mood

MelancholicWistfulContemplative

Themes

IdentityArt and creationComing apartColonialism

Tone

Tender

Pacing

Slow-burn

Look

NaturalisticDocumentary-like

Structure

Ensemble

Zhao Tao

Yin Ruijuan

Wang Hongwei

Cui Minliang

Liang Jingdong

Chang Jun

Yang Lina

Zhong Pin

Wang Bo

Yao Eryong

Han Sanming

Sanming

Reviews

nicolascagegoons

Aug 27, 2026

Disconnect between generations both in aesthetic but also due to the political shift in China and I really like how it portrays both old and new as something to be looked at through equal eyes, I generally didn't feel a sense of downplay here.
With new generations, there is always something thats gonna be left behind whether it be values, traditions and what not. and in combination with the political shift during those times, its understandable why that especially happened around that time but to an extend its universal. I found its non linear narrative exciting and it reminded me a lot of dodes'ka-den in that it takes its time with cutting and generally let's the actors naturally take form in the time the film sets in with its long takes and static movement.
It sucks that this guy, the director, has fallen to ai because this is an achievement for a second feature.
(Watch my films
The grievance of the day: https://boxd.it/eD8Suj
Summer walk: https://boxd.it/ewenRP )