On the outskirts of Beijing, a theme-park guide blithely points out a prominent feature of the Manhattan skyline, just across from London's Tower Bridge. “The real Twin Towers were bombed on September 11,” he notes, “but ours are still standing.” In this surreal (though real) tourist trap that serves as the backdrop for Jia Zhangke's droll and bittersweet film, the wonders of the world have been reproduced and populated by performers who dance in the shadows of mock monuments. Swirling at the center of The World is Tao (Zhao Tao), an attractive young woman who spends her days elaborately costumed as an Indian princess or demure geisha for visitors, while leading a quiet life dating a park security guard and befriending a wistful Russian guest worker. Occasionally she allows herself to slip into anime-inflected daydreams that reflect her hopes that toiling in this Disneyesque elsewhere might actually take her somewhere. However, as her boyfriend begins falling for a designer of knockoff fashions and her foreign friend is duped into seedier work, the shiny new façade of urban living starts to look less like home to Tao. As in his previous features, Jia spins a sly modern parable about the human costs of China's recent cultural renovation.