A Touch of Sin shows a different style for Jia Zhangke, who has created a cinematic world that is simultaneously Chinese and universal, and that captures the subtle relationship between spaces and people. Although this new feature is more epic and genre-oriented than his previous films, it still explores space to person and person to person relationships. Miners living in a coal-mining town where people lead humble lives, those engaging in the sex industry in the city and handymen who go everywhere all commit sins at some point. However, no punishment exists for these sinners and no salvation exists for the unpunished. Those who are assailants and victims at the same time restlessly wander around in this world, regardless of the space where they exist. The film questions the raison d′etre in this world?a world deprived of salvation where religious images and rituals are meaninglessly repeated and voices demanding justice sound hollow. (CHO Young-jung)