I Wish I Knew

Thursday, May 1 - Wednesday, May 7, 2025

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Shanghai’s past and present flow together in Jia Zhangke’s poetic and poignant portrait of this fast-changing port city. Restoring censored images and filling in forgotten facts, Jia provides an alternative version of 20th century China’s fraught history as reflected through life in the Yangtze city.He builds his narrative through a series of eighteen interviews with people from all walks of life-politicians’ children, ex-soldiers, criminals, and artists (including Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien)– while returning regularly to the image of his favorite lead actress, Zhao Tao, wandering through the Shanghai World Expo Park. (The film was commissioned by the World Expo, but is anything but a piece of straightforward civic boosterism.) A richly textured tapestry full of provocative juxtapositions.

Screening as part of Time and Tide: The Films of Jia Zhang-ke

See more and save! Get a Jia Zhang-ke Ticket Pack ($30 for IFC Center members and $45 for non-members). Ticket packs are good for any three shows in the retrospective.

  • Country China
  • Language Mandarin with English subtitles
  • Year 2010
  • Running Time 125 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Distributor Kino Lorber
  • Director Jia Zhang-ke
  • Cast Michelangelo Antonioni, Yindi Cao, Hsin-i Chang, Danqing Chen, Mei-Ru Du, Zhao Tao
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.