Jia Zhangke to tackle "The Age Of Tattoo"

Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who recently won the Golden Lion award at Venice for his film "Still Life" has announced that his next project will be "The Age Of Tattoo".

The plot follows a group of street kids during the traumatic final years of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. The director described the project to the Beijing News, saying "I want to focus on the small alleys of daily life that show the pain people suffered ... and how they were engulfed by the times".

Casting is already underway, with regular collaborator Zhao Tao in the lead, and the director is now searching for some youngsters with martial arts skills, as the film will apparently feature action scenes - something which will hopefully liven things up, as Jia's films have a tendency to be rather dry, slow moving mood pieces rather than actually entertaining.

He hopes to start shooting soon, though expects to run into trouble from the Chinese authorities, something which he is no stranger to.