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Quitting
Sony Pictures Classics


9.0

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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Rate this movie

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for drug content

Starring Xiuling Chai, Fengsen Jia, Hongshen Jia, Tong Wang, and Shun Xing

Explores one man's journey, from the cutting edge of China's artistic movement in the early 90's, through a period of conflict with himself and his parents, to a mental institution and finally to the quest to rediscover himself and his family. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Yang Zhang Xin Huo
DIRECTED BY:	Yang Zhang
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 4, 2003 Video: March 4, 2003 Theatrical: September 13, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin Chinese (with English subtitles)

Original title in China "Zuo Tian," which translates as "Yesterday"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The total effect is mesmerizing, an eye-opening tour of modern Beijing culture in a journey of rebellion, retreat into oblivion and return.

New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein

Beautifully made, deeply upsetting drama.

Chicago Tribune Patrick Z. McGavin

Daring and beautifully made, Zhang Yang's Quitting plays like a Chinese "Rebel Without a Cause."

The New York Times Dana Stevens

With Quitting, he (Zhang) has removed sentimentality from the theme and presented it with unflinching honesty, a quality he shares with his fearless cast.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Daring and complex. At 112 minutes, it might be 15 minutes too long, but this is not enough to detract from its impact as a probing and universal contemporary drama.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

It's downbeat material and it tends to drag a bit, but Jia's performance is so unsparing and intense -- and the film so compassionate and chaste in its approach to a life lost and recovered -- that Quitting ultimately satisfies.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Quitting begins to seem intriguing in concept. Now comes the best news: It's just as compelling in execution.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

If only "reality" TV was as realistic as Quitting.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

Particularly wrenching in its depiction of the father-son relationship.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is a brave experiment, based on life and using actors who play themselves, but it buys into the whole false notion that artists are somehow too brilliant to be sober.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The entire cast is extraordinarily good -- many of them are, after all, actors by trade -- but throughout, Zhang is keen to remind his audience that this is only a dramatization.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Because Quitting admits its basic falsehood up front, the film is never emotionally affecting, but Jia's participation in this confrontation of his past shows remarkable courage and honesty, especially when his behavior doesn't inspire much sympathy.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

An intriguing idea undermined by a lackluster follow-through.

Variety Derek Elley

What gives Quitting its freshness is its setting in a country that often denies it has such problems and the decision to anchor the film strongly within the Chinese family fabric.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Whether Quitting will prove absorbing to American audiences is debatable: After all, it's not like we don't have enough rehab stories of our own, and Jia often comes across as a sullen, unreachable brat.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Unfortunately Jia --a rather limited actor, judging from the movies excerpted here -- has trouble either articulating or projecting the existential crisis that ultimately landed him in a mental institution, which leaves the emotional center of the film inert.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

If Quitting isn't worthy of affection exactly, it's worthy of respect.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Alternately grueling and soporific, Quitting is a movie about addiction that demands the viewer also give something up.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Unfortunately, the experience of actually watching the movie is less compelling than the circumstances of its making.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a9:
A movie devoid of imaginative devices, but otherwise fully formed. A fine story, applicable in all cultures, of a youth asserting his own devices, but finding they can't improve on a sense of responsibility to his family.

Rianne M. gave it a10:
This is such a beautiful movie, the music, the drama.

Ian gave it a 9:
This movie was a refreshing change from the glamourized star falls from grace movies that Hollywood turns out. Hollywood still holds an affection for drug use that tends to skew the stories towards a trite "the parties were great, but it all ended in a crash" storyline, which does little justice to the reality of drug abuse. This story was very compelling, with Jia potraying his edge-of-insanity day to day existence well. The side story of his parent's helplessness in the face of his downward spiral also conveyed the realism of people trying to cope with a problem that is beyond their abilities to handle. I almost have to question whether or not those who gave the film a sub-70 rating actually watched the film or not. Reading the comments seems to indicate that, at the very least, the reviewers didn't bother to try and follow the subtleties of the story. A fresh, but not candy-coated, story.

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Quitting Sony Pictures Classics

Quitting
Sony Pictures Classics