--- description: Greenpeace East Asia has released an eerily beautiful, seven-minute film by director Jia Zhangke about China's toxic air title: Watch This Haunting 7-Minute Film About China's Toxic Air image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch This Haunting Seven-Minute Film About China's Insane Air Pollution by [Emily Rauhala / Beijing](/author/emily-rauhala/) ## Emily Rauhala / Beijing Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 22, 2015 8:50 AM CUT by [Emily Rauhala / Beijing](/author/emily-rauhala/) ## Emily Rauhala / Beijing Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 22, 2015 8:50 AM CUT Greenpeace East Asia today released a seven-minute film by director Jia Zhangke about China’s toxic air. The impressionistic piece, _Smog Journeys_, follows two families — one rural, one urban — as they live, play, and work in the country’s polluted northeast. “When it comes to smog, no matter what jobs we do, it is still a problem we all face,” says Jia in an [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68aqPbQuF4&feature=youtu.be "undefined") released online. Jia is one of China’s most renowned filmmakers. His work is famously gritty, filled with tales of alienation and strife, and shot in shades of brown and gray. His last feature, _A Touch of Sin_ (2013), was a critical hit abroad, but was considered too politically sensitive to be shown on the Chinese mainland. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3677893/china-pollution-film-jia-zhangke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3677893/china-pollution-film-jia-zhangke/"},"headline":"Watch This Haunting Seven-Minute Film About China's Insane Air Pollution","datePublished":"2015-01-22T08:50:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:46:27.713Z","description":"It's haunting and eerily beautiful","url":"https://time.com/3677893/china-pollution-film-jia-zhangke/","keywords":["China","Smog","Air Pollution","film"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emily Rauhala / Beijing"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3677893/china-pollution-film-jia-zhangke/","name":"Watch This Haunting Seven-Minute Film About China's Insane Air Pollution"}}]}] ```