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03/27/09
Still Life (2008)
90 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 38
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Consensus: Zhangke spellbindingly captures the human cost of rapid industrialization in modern China.
Theatrical Release:2006
Synopsis: Fengjie’s old town is already under water, but its new neighbourhood hasn’t been finished yet. There are things to salvage and there are things to leave behind… Han Sanming, a miner, travels to... [More]
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Reviews for Still Life
Top CriticMore than a million people have been displaced in central China in the cause of generating electrical power to meet the needs of the future; Jia's flowing river of a picture washes over a few of them as they adjust to life's currents in the present.
11/24/08
Top CriticThe despondent tone is lifted by moments of hope and, surprisingly, hilarity.
11/20/08
Still Life is a moody undertaking, with little action but plenty going on.
10/18/08
Jia Zhang Ke is perhaps the most distinctive director working in China now.
10/18/08
Still Life is all about these common people existing in a world that seems more and more unreal
10/13/08
Simply one of the best films of last year, this year, or any year likely to come.
10/03/08
An extraordinary glimpse into the psychology, subtext and austere reality of modern Chinese culture.
09/26/08
Director Jia Zhang-ke sees the urbanization of China through the eyes of the relocated laborers.
09/26/08
Jia has taken supposedly naturalistic approach to filmmaking and, here at least, uses amateur actors and other fresh faces. A few of these newcomers are stiff and appear to be uncomfortable on camera.
07/23/08
The rising waters of the Yangtze become a melancholy backdrop for a diaspora in which people try to establish some connection in a place where their old lives literally are being washed away.
07/10/08
Richly rewarding to those willing to roll with its deliberate rhythms.
06/27/08
Jia chose a great setting, but don't give him too much credit
06/19/08
As much an exploration of emotional and cultural problems in modern day China, as it is the tale of one man's lost love.
06/14/08
Never has destruction looked more beautiful than the demolished buildings in Jia Zhang-ke's Still Life.
05/09/08
Top CriticA dazzling package, filled with award-worthy cinematography and pacing.
05/08/08
Writer-director Jia Zhangke is a keen observer of the effects of the break-neck modernization that is stampeding China toward a future that no one can predict, control, or contain.
04/14/08
Top CriticContains some of the most inerrant, beautiful compositions you will see in a theater this year.
02/28/08
Jia Zhang-ke is a new auteur making his mark. Embraced abroad on the international festival circuit, if less welcome on screens in China, this writer-director works in a genre that could be called globalist.
02/22/08
Top CriticJia [Zhang-Kie] is proving to be a world-class filmmaker with a brilliant eye for both the small details and the big picture.
02/22/08
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September 25, 2006:
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