Art College 1994

Name: Art College 1994
Genre: Drama, History, Comedy, Romance, Animation
Released: April 26, 2024
Duration: 118 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Bo Huang, Chengpeng Dong, Gan Bi, Guanjin Bu, Huang Lu

2024

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Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Dekanalog | Release Date: April 26, 2024 | Not Rated

Starring: Bo Huang, Chengpeng Dong, Gan Bi, Guanjin Bu, Huang Lu, Xu Changchu, Xu Lei, Yilei Jiang, Zhang Ke Jia, Zijian Dong

Summary: 1990s, China. A motley gang of Chinese art students fill their languid days with inchoate musings about aesthetics, philosophy and the promised ‘good’ life after graduation. A portrait of youth, the students live in full swing as they take their first steps into adulthood, where love and friendships are intertwined with artistic pursuits,1990s, China. A motley gang of Chinese art students fill their languid days with inchoate musings about aesthetics, philosophy and the promised ‘good’ life after graduation. A portrait of youth, the students live in full swing as they take their first steps into adulthood, where love and friendships are intertwined with artistic pursuits, ideals and ambitions. Caught between tradition and modernity, they now have to choose who they want to become.… Expand

Director: Jian Liu

Genre(s): Drama, History, Comedy, Romance, Animation

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 118 min

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Critic Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com Simon Abrams

Apr 25, 2024

Art College 1994 is unassumingly sweet because it’s about young people and their eternal quest for freedom and self-expression, mostly inside their own navels. Read full review

Leslie Felperin

Dec 19, 2025

There’s a sense that this gently meandering, sketchbook-like work is aware of its own cinematic precedents. It certainly seems to suffer from an anxiety of influence as it tries to carve out a space for itself somewhere in the region of Eric Rohmer wistful romances, Richard Linklater ensemble stories, and Sixth Generation semi-underground Chinese filmmakers like Jia Zhangke. Read full review

Ryan Coleman

Apr 21, 2024

The precise contrast of stasis and flux, of the sublime and the quotidian, of simple personal dreams swallowed up by massive national ambitions, characterizes Liu Jian’s latest. Read full review

Jessica Kiang

Dec 19, 2025

In re-creating life out of life, Liu is quite successful; whether he makes it into drama is another question. Like its characters, Art College 1994 gives the impression of having just too much time on its hands. Read full review

Wendy Ide

Dec 19, 2025

It evokes a specific time and a place so vividly that you can almost taste the stale cigarette smoke and cheap beer. But while the picture affectionately skewers the youthful pretensions of the aspiring artists, it also allows the students an overly generous space in which to pontificate and navel-gaze. Read full review

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