A Touch Of Sin

Ambition. The driving force of all the arts, ambition was as much the subject of 2014’s cinematic output as it was the modus operandi. From the pseudo-philosophical posturing of Interstellar to the Achilles heel of tragic protagonists (Inside Llewyn Davis, Starry Eyes), ambition has proved a millstone just as...

The anthology film, a format favoured especially by the horror genre, seems bound by two rules: to consist of slight or superficial stories, and to be undone by one weak story. Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin breaks the first rule and stumbles with the second. It doesn’t so...