Plot
Unknown Pleasures follows three disaffected, aimless young people in the industrial city of Datong in China's Shanxi province throughout 2001. Nineteen-year old Bin Bin (Zhao Weiwei) lives with his mother, an adherent of the Falun Gong, in a small apartment near Datong's textile mill. Bin Bin's best friend, the reckless Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong), lives in an even smaller apartment with his father, and spends his time riding his motorbike around the city. The two friends eventually meet Qiao Qiao, a young singer and dancer working for the Mongolian King Liquor company as a spokesmodel. Xiao Ji immediately becomes enamored with Qiao Qiao, which gets him in trouble with Qiao Qiao's boyfriend, the loan shark and local thug, Qiao San (Li Zhubin).
For much of the early parts of the film, the three characters seem to follow an aimless lifestyle. Unemployed, Bin Bin meets with his girlfriend to watch television on most days, while Xiao Ji seems to do nothing at all aside from flirt with Qiao Qiao. When an explosion rocks part of the city's textile mill, the characters are briefly pushed into action. Qiao Qiao, desperate to get her injured father into the hospital, has Xiao Ji rush to the bank in order to withdraw ¥2000 for the entry fee. As thanks, she takes Xiao Ji and Bin Bin first to lunch, where Xiao Ji references watching Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, and then to a discotheque. While dancing, Xiao Ji is led away by Qiao San's men, who humiliate and beat him. Enraged, Xiao Ji tries to avenge himself but is stopped by Bin Bin, who tells him that Qiao San keeps a gun on his person. Undeterred, Xiao Ji continues to pursue Qiao Qiao, who is eventually abandoned by her boyfriend. When the two young people end up in a hotel room, Qiao Qiao tries to explain to Xiao Ji the philosophy of Zhuangzi who, in his poem Ren Xiao Yao, "philosophized that we should do what feels good." Soon afterward, it is learned that Qiao San has died in a car accident. The film implies that Qiao Qiao nevertheless leaves Xiao Ji and is last seen wearing a blue wig as a prostitute in a run-down club.
Bin Bin, meanwhile, following the advice of his mother, tries to join the PLA, but is rejected when it is discovered that he suffers from hepatitis. Shattered, he borrows ¥1500 from a small-time crook Xiao Wu (Wang Hongwei). Bin Bin uses the money to purchase a cell phone for his girlfriend, but when she tries to get close to him, he refuses, and notes only that there is no future for him anymore.
Bin Bin and Xiao Ji decide to rob a bank, as they have seen so often in American films. Attaching a fake bomb to Bin Bin's chest, Xiao Ji drives Bin Bin to a China Construction Bank, where the latter is immediately arrested. Fleeing, Xiao Ji drives his motorbike down the highway until it breaks down and he hitches a ride to locations unknown. Bin Bin is left at the police station, where an officer informs him that robbery is a capital crime. The film ends as the police officer forces Bin Bin to stand and sing. Bin Bin chooses to sing Ren Xiao Yao, a pop song about being spiritually free through love.
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