Film: Still Life (2006) Director: Jia Zhangke
Still Life takes place in the decaying village of Fengje, which is the in the process of demolition in order to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. The film is a rather gripping and real look at modern China, with it being entirely filmed on stunning high definition digital video. Awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in its year of release, Still Life is an exceptional display of modernistic China and is well deserving of its praise by critics.
What's interesting about the plot is that there a two stories being told here. Although not necessarily connected to each other, they both take place in Fengje - The first following a coal miner named Han Sanming (interestingly enough, is the same name as the actor himself), who has traveled to Fengje in order to search for his wife and daughter after they ran away sixteen years ago. Despite Han having only played minor roles in Jia Zhangke's previous works, he delivers a leading role incredibly well in this film to the point where it almost looks like he's simply being himself. There is a feeling of distraught from his character that you really begin to see in the earlier scenes of the film as assumptions could have been made about people he meets, though we soon learn that he is able to handle himself well once he settles himself into a nearby hotel.
The second tells the story of a nurse named Shen Hong, who is searching for her husband Guo Bin, having not heard from him for over two years. During her search she befriends Wang Dongming, who assists her in looking for him. Shen is played by the beautiful Zhao Tao who also has played leading roles many of Jia's other films, I found her performance here to be also well done as she has a lot of prior experience working with Jia on his films. The two protagonists share the story of a lost love, but in some cases shows very clear contrasts of one another – Han obviously being of the lower working class earning 50 yuan per day for demolition work, where as Shen looks fit for a much more modern society - also tied into a relationship within a much higher class.
The biggest aspect of the film is the visual style, which I thought was remarkable. With it being shot in high definition everything looks visually impressive and is quickly apparent that this is what Jia wanted to be of the most importance in the film. Everything from the sweat and strain on the demolition workers as they are busy with deconstruction to the various shots of the crumbling buildings in Fengje. Jia's other works have had a tendency to use slow, panning camera-work in many of his other films and here in Still Life it is ever so common as there are very many scenes that slowly pan across the huge amount of rubble and men at work. Often they are accompanied without music but rather the distinct working sounds of the demolition which at some stages I felt like it was almost in a rhythmic fashion. Many shots contrast the torn down landscape in comparison to the natural environment, as well as moments when the camera is left lingering for us to observe so much of what is happening, enough to say that through the camera-work alone we can see that these people are left behind in a state of China that is slowly modernizing. Still Life constantly tells of a bigger picture in urban China as the characters are left to make decisions with their love life and choose how to move on in the ever developing society.
Although the film does feel slow paced at times, Still Life delivers a visually breathtaking look into urban China. By making use of the Three Gorges Dam project used it cleverly shows us the major changes happening not only in the landscape, but the people as well.
Still Life takes place in the decaying village of Fengje, which is the in the process of demolition in order to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. The film is a rather gripping and real look at modern China, with it being entirely filmed on stunning high definition digital video. Awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in its year of release, Still Life is an exceptional display of modernistic China and is well deserving of its praise by critics.
What's interesting about the plot is that there a two stories being told here. Although not necessarily connected to each other, they both take place in Fengje - The first following a coal miner named Han Sanming (interestingly enough, is the same name as the actor himself), who has traveled to Fengje in order to search for his wife and daughter after they ran away sixteen years ago. Despite Han having only played minor roles in Jia Zhangke's previous works, he delivers a leading role incredibly well in this film to the point where it almost looks like he's simply being himself. There is a feeling of distraught from his character that you really begin to see in the earlier scenes of the film as assumptions could have been made about people he meets, though we soon learn that he is able to handle himself well once he settles himself into a nearby hotel.
The second tells the story of a nurse named Shen Hong, who is searching for her husband Guo Bin, having not heard from him for over two years. During her search she befriends Wang Dongming, who assists her in looking for him. Shen is played by the beautiful Zhao Tao who also has played leading roles many of Jia's other films, I found her performance here to be also well done as she has a lot of prior experience working with Jia on his films. The two protagonists share the story of a lost love, but in some cases shows very clear contrasts of one another – Han obviously being of the lower working class earning 50 yuan per day for demolition work, where as Shen looks fit for a much more modern society - also tied into a relationship within a much higher class.
The biggest aspect of the film is the visual style, which I thought was remarkable. With it being shot in high definition everything looks visually impressive and is quickly apparent that this is what Jia wanted to be of the most importance in the film. Everything from the sweat and strain on the demolition workers as they are busy with deconstruction to the various shots of the crumbling buildings in Fengje. Jia's other works have had a tendency to use slow, panning camera-work in many of his other films and here in Still Life it is ever so common as there are very many scenes that slowly pan across the huge amount of rubble and men at work. Often they are accompanied without music but rather the distinct working sounds of the demolition which at some stages I felt like it was almost in a rhythmic fashion. Many shots contrast the torn down landscape in comparison to the natural environment, as well as moments when the camera is left lingering for us to observe so much of what is happening, enough to say that through the camera-work alone we can see that these people are left behind in a state of China that is slowly modernizing. Still Life constantly tells of a bigger picture in urban China as the characters are left to make decisions with their love life and choose how to move on in the ever developing society.
Although the film does feel slow paced at times, Still Life delivers a visually breathtaking look into urban China. By making use of the Three Gorges Dam project used it cleverly shows us the major changes happening not only in the landscape, but the people as well.