[I Wish I Knew] is Jia Zhangke’s visual poem that rereads the history of Shanghai from a contemporary point of view. The heavy sound of boat engines follows the tranquil, dream-like camera eye, passing the cityscape of Shanghai and its countless residents. In the shadow of development, through which the city’s facade changes daily, a buried history of the past breathes. Voices that lived through Shanghai’s past beautifully overlap with images of the present. Among cities in China, Shanghai has taken on the most complex and diverse patters of history and culture. Chinese modern history employing Western cultures and various other Asian cultures as well as its transformation into a socialist state are imprinted on the entire city. Jia Zhangke conveys the un-definable city’s mysterious secrets through the memories of people, who lived through a whirlpool of changes, with the scent of romance and nostalgia. (CHO Young-jung)