Last Train to Zhili: Bing Brings Youth Cycle to Circular Close
Wang Bing completes his ‘Youth’ trilogy with finale Youth (Homecoming), which features the most forgiving running time of the three segments at only two and a half hours. The Cannes premiered Youth (Spring) (read review) was an hour longer and Youth (Hard Times) (read review), which premiered several weeks earlier at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, clocked in at nearly four hours. The entire project was shot between 2014 to 2019, mostly in China’s Zhili province, home to a multitude of garment workshops. The final chapter appropriately begins with some 2014 footage and ends in 2019, but most of its integral moments transpire at the end of 2015 and into the 2016 Chinese New Year.… Read the rest
