Still Life

Chinese director Jia Zhangke had caused quite a stir and surprises during the 2006 Venice International Film Festival by winning the Golden Lion award for this film.

The fictitious film, yet contemporary, has a coherent narrative with two main characters focused on the background of the Three Gorges dam construction, the world’s largest, in Central China. Han, a miner and Shen, a middle class woman, return to the small town of Fengjie in the dam area to look for their estranged spouses.

Han finds that during his sixteen-year absence the place has been flooded and his wife and daughter resettled elsewhere. As Han and Shen look for their elusive spouses, the lives of those affected by the mega dam project is told through these two unrelated people who never meet in the film.

Still Life is devoid of habitual narration style. It is an all out art film where images and observations come centre stage. Though the two main characters never meet their common purpose binds the film intact. The director seems to focus more on the significance of the event rather than on a soulful story. It brings to mind some documentaries in which the stories hardly took up with plenty of long shots trying capture what is happening in the background as well as at the front.

The film is quite perplexing but looking closely at the attention to details, you will be amazed. The best part is, you, as the viewer is left to interpret the plot itself which is never explicitly resolved. Still Life never frustrates despite its lack of mobility as Jia paints cinematic poetry in each frame. Despite the mundane storyline Still Life gives you an opportunity to spot some humour in the lives of other characters. Revealing them could spoil the challenge.

To watch this film you will need to put cent per cent of your patience into service. At the end of it you will be surprisingly pleased. The film also gives you an opportunity for some scholarly musing and striking visuals. Still Life has modest action but plenty of substance going on. However, watch it only if you are intelligent enough to appreciate art films else you’ll feel totally wasted.
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[Mandarin (U) with English subtitle]
Cast: Han Sanming, Zhao Tao, Li Zhu Bing, Wang Hongwei
Director: Zhang Ke Jia