Xiao Wu. 1997. Directed by Jia Zhangke

Film

No upcoming events

Xiao Wu. 1997. China. Directed by Jia Zhangke. Courtesy FSA

Xiao Wu. 1997. China. Directed by Jia Zhangke. With Wang Hongwei. 35mm. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 110 min.

Small-town pickpocket Xiao Wu struggles to gain a foothold in a rapidly modernizing world. While his old gang buddies have found fortune as entrepreneurs in the new marketplace, Xiao Wu sticks to his old trade and gradually finds himself deserted by everyone he once knew. Since this independently produced debut feature, Jia has created an unparalleled body of work, telling emotionally powerful tales of a society transforming at breakneck speed. His attention to fleeting sights, sounds, and emotions, as well as changing relations between people, makes him an especially penetrating chronicler of contemporary Chinese life. His noted works include Platform (2000), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), A Touch of Sin (2013), and Ash Is Purest White (2018), among others.

This film accompanies Vision Statement: Early Directorial Works.

Past events

Tue, Nov 26, 2019, 4:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 7:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].