A Touch of Sin (天注定) (2013)

A Touch of Sin preceded Wild Tales by 2 years. It's hard to believe that Damian Szifron was unfamiliar with this movie. I assume that someone in film would be familiar with the works of Jia Zhangke. But Szifron essentially remade A Touch of Sin in Spanish. They are both anthology movies based on a theme of revenge or anger (except the second story doesn't quite fit the theme, and is my least favorite of the four stories). I quite like both movies, but I think I liked Wild Tales a little better because it's comedic. But Jia's movie is enthralling nonetheless. It is surprisingly critical of Chinese society. Well, it's not surprising that Jia is critical of Chinese society, it's surprising that China allowed him to be so critical. It's pretty bleak, dare I say an accurate portrayal of China.