Zhangke spellbindingly captures the human cost of rapid industrialization in modern China. Read critic reviews
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Still Life videos
Still Life: Trailer 1
Still Life Photos
Movie Info
Still Life, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, is a unique hybrid of documentary and fiction. Great changes have come to the town of Fengjie due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam: Countless families that had lived there for generations have had to relocate. Fengjie's old town, which has a 2000-year history, has been torn down and submerged forever. There are still things that need to be salvaged and yet there are also things that must be left behind. Such life-changing choices face both Sanming, a miner traveling to Fengjie in search of his ex-wife of sixteen years, and Shen Hong, a nurse who has come to Fengjie to look for her husband who she hasn't seen in two years. Both Sanming and Shen will find who they're looking for, but in the process they too will have to decide what is worth salvaging in their lives and what they need to let go.
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: Chinese
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Director: Zhang-Ke Jia
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Producer: Chow Keung
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Writer: Zhang-Ke Jia
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Release Date (Theaters): limited
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $68.2K
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Runtime:
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Distributor: New Yorker Films
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Production Co: Shanghai Film Studio
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Critic Reviews for Still Life
Audience Reviews for Still Life
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Jia Zhangke's STILL LIFE is a prime example of the effectiveness of observational filmmaking and how the weight of the subject alone (and its themes) can not only propel but impact the drama forward. Although it seemingly presents two separate narratives following two different characters traversing a bleak but exquisitely framed developmental atmosphere (small villages directly affected by the Three Gorges Dam project that make for cinematic locations), the film unfolds with care and precision by never forcing dramatic elements and allowing the viewers to learn, feel, and decide as they go; both characters go about their way with a sense of clustered urgency as we learn the ways in which the society has impacted their personal lives, relationships, and families - we know and see just as much as we need to (a credit to a superbly tight script). This is a film that rewards the viewer once the credit rolls - allowing the punch to reveal itself gradually as the grounded, painful, and raw message sinks in. It is, in fact, a devastating realization, and likewise a great film, that is bolstered by Jia's patient approach, unintrusive cinematography and storytelling, and bold commentary on a specific aspect of his country's real-life issues.
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a gorgeous minimalist meditation on the effects of the three gorges dam project on the ancient chinese civilization in the area, focusing on two keenly observed characters searching for lost relatives. quiet moving drama, the best i've seen from jia zhang ke yet
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Sublimely beautiful film about two people searching for their estranged spouses in areas about to be flooded by China's Three Gorges Dam. Much like a narrative version of "Up the Yangtze" (although filmed two years prior), "Still Life" is a haunting elegy to dying part of China.
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[font=Century Gothic]"Still Life" starts with Han(Han Sanming) arriving in Fengjie as it is in the process of being prepared to be flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. He is looking for the wife he has not seen in sixteen years, desperately wanting to see the daughter he has never known. But he receives news from her brother that she is currently out of town and the best thing to do is just to wait for her. In the interim, Han finds some demolition work.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]In the meantime, Shen Hong(Zhao Tao) also arrives in town looking for her husband who she has not heard from in two years.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]The central theme of "Still Life" is the price of progress. The bitter irony of the Three Gorges Dam is that it is likely to help other parts of the country more than the people who are being dislocated. Fengjie is definitely a fascinating setting for a movie and a good starting place for an exploration of forced mobility in Chinese society. So, while the movie handles the social criticism well, the drama is handled less successfully, as neither storyline is developed as well as they could have been.[/font]
walter m Super Reviewer
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