By far the most interesting film from China this year, Xiao Wu starts out looking like an exercise in grungy social realism but gradually reveals itself to be something much more surprising. The eponymous protagonist is a scummy-but-likeable petty criminal, a pickpocket preying on visitors to Fengyang, the provincial dirt-town he calls home. But times are hard and getting harder: his best friend is suddenly a ′model entrepreneur′ and doesn′t want to know him any more, his family is falling apart, the leggy Mei-Mei from the local karaoke hostess bar seems to be stringing him along, and the cops are launching a crackdown on crime in the streets... The film′s turning-point is a scene in a public bath-house where Xiao Wu, alone, does what he has always refused to do in the karaoke bar: he sings his heart out. From this scene on, the film leaves mere sociology behind. Working outside what remains of China′s studio system and using a cast of brilliantly chosen non-professionals, first-time director Jia takes an almost Bressonian path to core of Xiao Wu′s psyche, stripping away layer after layer of his loser′s armour until he′s left as ′naked′ as a person can be. As with a film like Bresson′s Mouchette, to watch this is an exalting experience. (Tony Rayns)