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This award-winning Chinese film is unlike any other you've seen: a true-life story that's enacted by the real-life participants but is not a documentary in any traditional sense. Not only did the young actor Jia Hongsheng (who rose to stardom in China, succumbed to heroin addiction, and alienated his family with erratic, schizoid behavior) agree to re-create this harrowing period in his life, but so did his family, as well as everyone else who appears in
Quitting. His recovery is as compelling as his collapse; the efforts of his family to support his return to health are deeply moving. Director Zhang Yang (
Shower) shifts styles without losing the forward momentum of this remarkable chronicle.
Quitting was a sensation in China, where the struggle between traditional conformity and individual freedom grows increasingly tense, making this movie a striking social document as well as a gripping personal story.
--Bret Fetzer
