Cinema is often at its best when it places characters in a social and cultural world that is rapidly changing. The grandeur of the latter infuses the little events of the former (drinking in a bar, dancing in a club, walking down a street) with the force of an epic. This is Ash Is Purest White, a crime drama by the highly regarded Chinese director Jia Zhangke. The background is China’s recent and still-occurring economic inflation; in the foreground are two lovers, one of whom is a small-time gangster in a town that’s becoming a huge city. Their love is tested and twisted by the world-historical experience. by Charles Mudede