Accompanying the screening of Unknown Pleasures as part of our Jia Zhangke retrospective, we’re delighted to invite you to join us on Friday evening 24 April for a special pre-screening karaoke session in the Atrium Bar.

Set at the turn of the millennium, Unknown Pleasures captures the restless drift of youth in China’s post-90s moment — a world shaped by pop songs, borrowed emotions, and karaoke bars as shared spaces of escape. Popular music runs throughout Jia Zhangke’s films as a fleeting expression of freedom, intimacy, and longing.

In that spirit, this special karaoke session invites you to sing songs featured across Jia Zhangke’s cinema, alongside favourites from the late 1990s and early 2000s — or simply any song you love. Dressing up with a touch of Y2K nostalgia or classic 90s style is encouraged, but there are no strict rules, just the joy of slipping briefly into another era!

Event timings:

19:30-21:00  Dress-up party & karaoke cocktail hour

21:00-21:05  Brief introduction by curator Millie Zhou

21:05-23:00  Screening of Unknown Pleasures

Tickets are available for £13.50 for members and their +1, and £16.50 for non-members, and include access to the party as well as an unallocated seat for the screening.

About the film:

Set in the year 2000 in Datong, a declining industrial city in northern China, Unknown Pleasures follows two aimless young men, Bin Bin and Xiao Ji, adrift in boredom and unfulfilled desire. Unemployed and disconnected, they drift between pool halls, streets, and cheap interiors, dreaming of escape without the means to pursue it. Xiao Ji becomes fixated on Qiao Qiao, a nightclub dancer whose allure remains out of reach, while Bin Bin flirts with the fantasy of a criminal act that might give his life meaning. Through their stalled lives and quiet frustrations, the film offers a stark portrait of a generation left behind by rapid economic change, suspended between pop-cultural aspiration and lived limitation.