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Bad Accent Video Reviews: Platform

February 13, 2025
Panos Kotzathanasis
Platform (2000) by Jia Zhangke

(2000), directed by , is a poignant exploration of China’s rapid transformation from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Through the journey of a small-town theater troupe, the film captures the shift from collectivist socialism to a market-driven society, highlighting the emotional and cultural dissonance left in its wake.

🎭 Key Themes:

  • The impact of modernization on small-town China
  • The loss of traditional identity amid economic reform
  • Love, relationships, and emotional repression in a changing world
  • The evolution of pop culture and its influence on art and self-expression

💡 Featuring in her breakout role, Platform masterfully blends realism with historical introspection. Jia Zhangke’s use of long takes and static framing emphasizes the slow yet inevitable passage of time, making this film a meditative and deeply moving experience.

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Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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