THE Museum of Modern Art is honoring Jia Zhangke, the re negade Chinese film maker better known on the international scene than at home.
I’ve followed his career over the past decade, reviewing his movies that had releases in New York.
One I especially remember is “Unknown Pleasures” (2002), the story of two young slackers in a provincial city. The guys are angry as hell, but they have no outlets for their frustration.
“They are part of the birth-control generation,” Jia explained in the film’s press notes. “They’ll never have any brothers or sisters. Destiny has doomed them to a solitary existence.”
One of the boys, Bin Bin, spends his days roaring around on a motorbike, hanging out in karaoke clubs and watching cartoons.
His pal Xiao Ji isn’t any better off. A cute boy with hair that nearly covers his eyes, his main occupation is making a pest of himself as he pursues Qiao Qiao.
She’s a dancer/singer of questionable talent and morals who makes her living promoting a liquor called Mongolian King (“the frontier taste”) and dates a mobster.
“I’ll make you soften as fast as instant noodles,” Xiao Ji brags as he comes on to the sad-eyed woman.
“Unknown Pleasures,” which was shot on digital video, unreels March 17 at 7:30 p.m. at MoMA.
The retro continues through March 20 and includes also “Platform” (2000), “24 City” (2008), “The World” (2004) and “Still Life” (2006).
“The World” is set in a gaudy Beijing theme park filled with re-creations of world landmarks, like the World Trade Center.
“Platform” concerns slackers in the 40-year-old director’s provincial hometown, “Still Life” plays out against the controversial changes being unleashed by the Three Gorges Dam project, and “24 City” examines the effect of a factory’s closing on three generations of workers.
Tomorrow night at 7, MoMA will host “An Evening with Jia Zhangke,” at which Jia will introduce an excerpt from his newest work, “Shanghai Legend” (2010) — a documentary for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo — and then converse with a panel of critics.
The series was organized by MoMA curator Jytte Jensen. Details: moma.org.
V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post; vam@nypost.com