Taisheng, frustrated that Tao refuses to have sex with him, is also busy with fellow migrants from his home province of Shanxi.

Anna confesses to Tao that she will quit her job and implies that she must prostitute herself in order to make enough money to see her sister, also in Ulaanbaatar.

Meanwhile, Taisheng is asked by an associate to drive a woman named Qun to Taiyuan so she can deal with her gambling brother, and he eventually becomes attracted to her.

The World was a joint-production by Jia Zhangke's own Xstream Pictures, Japan's Office Kitano, and France's Lumen Films.

It received additional financial support from the Shanghai Film Studio and several Japanese corporations including Bandai Visual and Tokyo FM, among others.

[6] The screenplay took approximately a year to write, over which time the story slowly changed, such that it became harder to distinguish the fact that it took place in Beijing, and the focus of the setting shifted to that of any large city with many migrants in it.

Jia is a migrant from Fenyang, Shanxi to Beijing, in his interview he said he “wants to focus on my viewpoint on big cities”.

"[7] Jia attributed the loosening of restrictions as part of the Film Bureau's overall liberalization and acceptance of so-called "outside directors.

"[10] One definite result of working within the system, however, was that the film became much easier to produce, as Jia no longer had to worry about interference from the central government or from local officials.

Advocations by the film industry were one of the reasons that led the Chinese government to reconsider the functions and role of moves as an economic tool.

[12] Jia Zhangke's's primary creative team once again returned for The World, including cinematographer Yu Lik-wai, sound designer Zhang Yang, and production houses Office Kitano and Lumen Films.

[6] Jia brought in the Taiwanese composer Lim Giong, who had previously worked with Hou Hsiao-hsien, to score the film using primarily electronic music.

[6] As stated by Jia, the artifice of the electronic music was to "signify the real emptiness of the lives of Tao and her friends.

Two characters supposed to not communicate with each other due to the language difference, however, the gaze helped them to talk and feel each other's pains and worries.

Jia Zhangke experimented with computer animation in The World instead of his preferred observational realism style, to reflect on the power as well as limits of the new technologies.

In an interview, Jia mentioned that young people in China rely heavily on cell phones and computers these days.

[1] Similarity, the virtual love notes are used to portray a shared, private space for the main couple in the film who are unable to achieve this in their daily lives.

In this sense, digital technologies provide a temporary reprieve from the character’s harsh realities and allow for interpersonal communication.

"[5] Variety also gave it a positive review, noting that the film "confirms [Jia] as one of the most interesting and insightful chroniclers of the new China.

[19] Dargis, however, had fewer problems with the film's pace and instead felt that Jia's vision was overly insular, "mesmerized" by World Park with only fleeting glimpses of the city beyond.

[5] Released in 2005 in the United States, The World appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of that year.