Set in four provinces, “A Touch of Sin” is a humanist critique of the country’s turn to capitalism. Dahai, like a Wuxia hero, seeks to right wrongs and fight for righteousness goes on a rampage against the people of his village. It also tells the story of a migrant worker who returns home for his mom’s 70th birthday, a young kid from the provinces who can only find work in an exploitative factory or a brothel, and a massage parlor receptionist (played by Zhao Tao, the director’s real-life wife). His four characters resort to impulsive violence as a remedy: the coal miner fires a shotgun, a bandit makes his living with a pistol, the receptionist defends herself with a knife, and a young man exits the workforce by self-destruction. A Touch of Sin paints a bleak and violent picture of a contemporary China in which corruption is endemic.
debarshithecinemaniac 