Audio Format: DD 5.1, DD 2.0
Video Format: Widescreen 1.78:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Mandarin
Subtitles: English, Korean
Region Code: ALL
Year Made: 2009
Running Time:
Release Date: 01/19/2010
Award-winning Sixth Generation director Jia Zhangke's 2007 documentary Useless weaves a three-part tale about the Chinese clothing industry. The documentary opens in the textile factories of Guangdong, where workers hunch over massive machines day in day out for low pay, before moving to Paris where fashion designer Ma Ke is unveiling her new collection of organic, avant-garde, haute couture designs.
Running counter to the clothing industry's culture of mass production and reproduction, her new line "Wu Yong", meaning "Useless", lends the film its title, and forms the heart of the documentary. The third act of the film travels to a tailor shop in a dusty mining town in Shanxi. Using a down-to-earth montage of people and places, Useless brings out the significance of clothing, and the different faces and sectors of modern China.
