Jia Zhangke Directs Apple Chinese New Year Commercial on an iPhone

The sappy Chinese New Year commercials are coming thick and fast now that The Year of the Pig is so close we can almost taste it. This one came out a week ago but is noteworthy for being helmed by famed film director Jia Zhangke, known for his gritty, strikingly true-to-life portraits of contemporary China. It also revolves around the tastes of home — that, and a bucket.

China and Apple have been in the news together a fair bit lately, and not always on the happiest of terms. The latter has blamed the former’s slowing economy for its sales slump.

Hoping to help arrest that slide is this heartwarming commercial that doesn’t quite pluck heartstrings in the same way as the viral Peppa Pig ad we wrote about here, but nonetheless features some classic Jia touches. And at around 6 minutes, it’s significantly shorter than his film work. Worth a watch.