Uncertainty is at the stem of Jia Zhangke's "Still Life" and it molds itself into many forms - uncertainty as to what China's economic boom holds for its future, displaced people uncertain whether they will ever see those they have lost again, and uncertainty over whether love that is broken can ever be mended. All of this takes place in the backdrop of Fengjie village, which was at the time being upheaved for the construction of Three Gorges Dam (now complete, and the largest electricity-generating plant in the world). Zhangke's use of a real setting and detail provides for some powerful shots, and it's this type of filmmaking that has formed him into one of China's foremost artistic commentators. However, in this movie especially, his cultural scope felt almost more alienating than immersing (one of my major complaints of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films), enough so to diminish the overall entertainment value.
Review of Still Life
