by James Hanton

Chinese director Liu Jian’s animated, punk stoner comedy is a slow burner in (mostly) the best senses of the word. Leaning heavily as it does on nihilism and apathy laced amidst the comedy, drama, and transformation that characterise the story, Art College 1994 demands the kind of patience you would have to show if trying to become the next great artist. What starts off as a story of arguably petty (if admittedly quite funny) revenge evolves into something more complex, balancing a fine line between appreciating and breaking from overruling traditions. 

Focusing on a group of art college students in 1990s China, which is becoming increasingly proliferated by Western culture and entertainment, the students muse over art and philosophy while dealing with being on the verge of adulthood. Central to Art College 1994 is the question of what is and is not art, who makes it, and who values it. Since it is animated in such a realistic manner, directly mimicking the appearances and conventions of live-action everyday life, the presentation of Jian’s film directly and intelligently involves itself in the storyline’s main conundrum.

Featuring star turns from a number of acclaimed Chinese stars and directors, Art College 1994 is on the surface a film for the creatives. More than that however, it is for anybody who has ever questioned where their life is going or indeed if it needs to go anywhere at all, and for those who temper their intellectual intrigue with a dry, wit-inducing stoicism. Jian’s movie is hardly a mass crowd-pleaser, but is set in its own way to become a coveted underground classic.