Jia Zhang Ke's ambitious film follows the lives of four friends over a turbulent ten year period of Chinese history, from 1979 to 1989.In the small town of Fenyang, in the remote western province of Shanxi, the teenage members of a state theatre troupe stage propaganda plays in praise of Mao. But as the country opens up to the free market and implements wide-ranging reform, their lives are irrevocably changed as the world around them is transformed by the music, fashions and other cultural influences of the West.
Named after a hit 80s Chinese pop song, Platform gives a vivid insight into modern China and absorbingly documents the sweeping social changes experienced by its people.