I Wish I Knew

"I wish I knew" are the lyrics to a sweet-voiced song, sung at a certain point in this new documentary by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke from \i Still Life, 24 City\i0 . There is longing in the song - for a bygone era, when Shanghai had not yet become a modern metropolis. The biggest port city in the world: a city that has clawed its way up, as an Asian tiger. As the camera roams over the contours of modern Shanghai, characterized by the broad Suzhou River and the ultramodern high-rise buildings, the soft growling of a big cat can be heard on the narrative soundtrack. While the present is captured in images, the past is brought to life in words. A seemingly random collection of people in different locations tell us what their connection to the city is or what effect the city has had on their lives. As a place of refuge, the backdrop to personal suffering, or merely the place where they grew up. Taken together, all these stories form a fragmented, personal history, which starts around the moment the People's Republic of China was founded. One of those telling his story is Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, who got to know the city when he went looking for locations for his film \i Flowers of Shanghai\i0 .