A soul-searingly bleak glimpse into working class China that is refreshingly genuine enough to make a very credible attempt at justifying its 4 hr runtime.

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This is very much a film about despair - about living in dark, mundane circumstances and you could say there's an element of 'keeping calm and carrying on', or whatever the Chinese equivalent of that motto is. Of course, the irony of the current situation with coronavirus (this review dates from March 2020) came to mind but this is different. I suppose you could argue there's an element of fate about it or inevitability but then people may complain that it's too simplistic to say that. I'll let the viewer come to their own conclusion - in any case, its certainly a thoughtful film, with quite good use of camerawork, to pan around the various characters, show how downtrodden their existence is and it's easy enough to imagine how disheartening it must be for them to be in that place, mentally, physically and emotionally I suppose. The vitriol some people show towards others did seem, on one hand, believable and also, for me it was obviously quite frustrating and saddening, for obvious reasons. It's in this sense that it is certainly a thought-provoking watch. Speaking of camerawork, I did feel there was quite a distinct sort of floaty feel or atmosphere to this film, with the viewer apparently observing the characters from multiple angles, while also glancing around at the surrounding area. Its a thought-provoking, sad (also just to note there is one scene featuring a dog being attacked and we are briefly shown a somewhat bloodied dog afterwards, which could be quite upsetting for some) but a memorable film that's well worth a watch, as long as you know it's not going to be very cheery and perhaps it's not the ideal thing to watch at the moment but otherwise, I would recommend this film, yes.

Dreadfully slow pace. Would be okay of at least something interesting was happening, but the plot is not that engaging.

A poetic and sorrowfull vission of the world, but real. One of the best strokes of film genius ever conceived.

A good 3 hour and 54 minutes journey. Set in a bleak industrial landscape, the depressing story of the characters and their nihilistic point of view will take you to a roller coaster ride of emotions. For some, this film may be less interesting, but if you have the patience and appreciation for slow cinema, please watch this if you have the chance. The film's ending is one of the prettiest I've seen.

Hypnotizing and delicate 'An Elephant Sitting Still' is an ambitious Chinese film written, directed and edited by Hu Bo. It's the first and last film of the novelist-turned-director who offed himself days after completing his work on the film. This is a grim look at life and it doesn't have any pick-me-up qualities. It's the worst form of humans on screen and that's a horrible point of view. Add that it's nearly four hours, and one would expect this to be a slog, but it just wasn't. I can't explain it other than to say I was entranced. I'm not sure if i was rubbernecking, but the subtle performances mixed with the visuals and the music worked well enough for my taste. This won't be for everyone, but don't be surprised if two hours fly by. Of course, at that point the movie is just over halfway complete. Final Score: 7.2/10

When it finally sets free, sets apart, sets loose, the sweet fragrant floods in, inside you, washing away your anxiety. An Elephant Sitting Still Bo Hu, the writer and director, whose first project, this project, is an almost four hour long achievement. Now, usually, it is advised to shoot something, some short film or a video before taking on a big project like this. And he has previously worked behind the camera. But even if he hadn't, this journey of making a film like such would have taught him well. Joking aside, the film never gets to that weak point. It doesn't have any. In fact there isn't a loose thread for you to follow up to that alpha material. You can't deconstruct the engineering of this film. The film starts from an ambiguous lost point following an equally oblivious character in each scenario. Capturing a day of these fellows' lives, the film is difficult to watch for two reasons. Don't worry they are deliberately installed to speak more expressively. First, are the characters. Each character that we come across with, is always the by product of its miserable fate. As in, it is never in control of what is to happen to him or her. Either someone knows and is keeping its mouth shut than someone can't control it. And if some can control it, it doesn't have the authority to and if someone has the authority to, then it itself is lost, misdirected and misinterpreted. Second, the cinematography. If we are following four lives in An Elephant Sitting Still, we are literally doing that. The camera doesn't leave them at any cost. The result is a close up shots of these various incidents captured through their expressions, performances. You feel congested. You aren't able to breathe. Horrible things go down and the emotion adds more trouble for the audience. Neither meltdowns nor reserved nature gives us a shoulder to hang on to.

This movie is different from anything i've ever seen before. This is a masterpiece. I haven't seen a better usage of long takes + long silences like in this movie. I haven't heard better soundtracks. They were all placed so perfectly. I loved this movie so much, everything about it is perfect and pretty. The blueish tint and the cold atmosphere, the dialogue, the honesty and also insincerity. It was all amazing. Easily my favorite movie of this year.

Tragic and brilliant. What could’ve been for this talented filmmaker gone too soon.

Humans, according to philosopher John Gray, seek silence as an escape from their inner commotion. âBy nature volatile and discordant,â? Gray writes, âthe human animal looks to silence for relief from being itself while other creatures enjoy silence as their birthright. Humans seek silence because they seek redemption from themselves, other animals live in silence because they do not need redeeming.â? The blissfully silent eponymous animal of Hu Boâ(TM)s poignant and stirring four hour film, An Elephant Sitting Still, is the talisman in which the damned characters of the film, all in woeful need of redemption, seek refuge. By the time they finally approach the mythical animal, however, the film has drained us completely of any hope that they will find what they are looking for. An Elephant Sitting Still is a cinema of despair. The film unfurls over the course of one day in a creeping and cold tapestry of subdued grays, following the protagonistâ(TM)s bleak peregrinations amongst the rubble-strewn and broken industrial landscape of a small city in northern China. This day starts rather inauspiciously for each of them. Local small-time gangster Yu Cheng (Zhang Yu) opens the film in the bed of his best friendâ(TM)s wife. When the cuckold friend unexpectedly returns home Yu Cheng watches as he tosses himself from the high-rise window in a fit of raging grief. Meanwhile, across town, sixteen-year-old Wei Bu (Peng Yuchang) is unable to finish his breakfast under the constant assault of his abusive fatherâ(TM)s insults and taunts. Wei Buâ(TM)s schoolmate, Huang Li (Wang Yuwen), celebrates her birthday morning by arguing with her sozzled and sluggish half-conscious alcoholic mother. Finally, former army man Wang Jin (Liu Congxi) wakes up to learn that his ungrateful son plans to kick him out of the apartment and install him instead in a dilapidated and depressing nursing home. What follows for Yu Cheng, Wei Bu, Huang Li and Wang Jin doesnâ(TM)t get any better. Theirs is a story of hopelessness expressed in a cheerless Tolstoyan realism only without the redemptive blessings of religion and spirituality. Despite An Elephant Sitting Stillâ(TM)s preoccupation with disaffection and estrangement, the characters share a desire, arrived at independently, to visit the city of Manzhouli in order to see its fabled elephant. One can understand the attraction. The elephant is said to sit calmly no matter the ruckus of its surroundings. This is a feat the characters are interested in learning about given the furor of their own lives. The journey to Manzhouli then is the goal of the film. It is captured in long takes with tightly controlled yet fluid camerawork by cinematographer Fan Chao. Significant portions of the film, reminiscent of Gus Van Santâ(TM)s own plodding pachydermic work, are simple steadicam tracking shots following the characters as they trudge about town. Chao employs a desperately small depth of field keeping everything but the main characters severely out of focus so as to isolate them completely from their environment. Often interlocutors are left out of the frame entirely. The result is a languid filmmaking style but never a boring one. Hu Bo is cinematically keen enough to understand just how many outbursts of violence to include in order to maintain the narrativeâ(TM)s buoyancy. The acting performances, however, do most of the work of keeping this very long and very slow film so thoroughly engaging. The characters of An Elephant Sitting Still are all children of Pankaj Mishraâ(TM)s ressentiment, frustrated souls suffering under the Schumpeterian destructive maelstroms of global capitalism. As such the film can be read syntopically with Hillbilly Elegy and the burgeoning social science literature of contemporary American deaths of despair. Wei Bu and his cohorts absorb the hard thumps of fate with a stilly forbearance as if their stark experience in this world has robbed them of appropriate emotive responses. There is little love here, only violence, melancholy and throttled rage. Itâ(TM)s an unfortunate existence rendered brilliantly by the filmâ(TM)s actors. More unfortunate though is that An Elephant Sitting Still appears to have only a limited theatrical run in the United States, playing exclusively at film festivals and select local arthouse theaters. It deserves a wider release equal to its critical acclaim. Hopefully word of mouth and some award wins will get it there. Until then check your local listings. Itâ(TM)s something you should see.

The meditative pacing and the haunting melancholia dominates the entire film that leaves the committed audience with a sense of sheer hopelessness. An unapologetically bleak masterpiece that makes no compromise whatsoever. Pure brilliance!

Within the 230 minutes, everyone in the film is glued and suppressed in their lives. The four protagonists were kind in nature, but they all ended up lost in the gloomy world. They were all angry, desperate, and finally born to die. I was most impressed by two scenes. One was that the high school student Wei Bu saw the old man Wang Jin was bullied by the dog owner in a white car. Wei Bu took the long rod and a brick confronting to the dog owner that he can destroy the car from start to finish. But then, he was knocked to the ground by the dog owner with one foot. Every time Wei Bu fell down, he immediately stood up and then fell again. When I saw it, I wondered if Wei Bu would stand up and fight back to the dog owner. But the result was that Wei Bu and Wang Jin stood there and watched the dog owner driving away. When Wei Bu confronting with the dog owner, Wang Jin kept putting his hands in his pockets and stood by, silently and staring at Webb. The other scene is the one where Wei Bu, Huang Ling, and Wang Jin were buying tickets at the bus station. Wang Jin asked Wei Bu to just buy two tickets, and persuaded to Webb that what can be changed in their life after watching the elephant at Manzhouli. Wei Bu replied gently let's go to check it out. The shot then turned around and the three persons were sitting on the bus to Manzhouli. I really like the construction and storytelling of this film. The four people in the parallel world are intertwined in the coincidence, and finally pursue the same goal - the elephant in the heart. The end of the film is left with the white space after hearing the trumpet from the elephant in a valley. No one knows how the protagonists' life will be after going to Manzhouli, just like each of us can't predict for our life. The goal to see the elephant sitting still seems to be absurd. But it is a kind of yearning for these people in this chaotic world and a hope of living to death. Because of this film, I get to know the director called Hu Bo. If we return back to students, we may be classmates in the same grade. Borned in the late 80s or early 90s, I can feel the same with this director from his novels and films. In most cases, the talented people or genius are sensitive and vulnerable in mind. They may not be compatible with the vast majority of the world, but they have the unique insights and talents in different aspects. Such people deserve respect and protect from our world. Some people may say that this society needs the versatile talents based on the rule of natural choices and survival of the fittest. I would say, no, firmly, that everyone should be treated as an independent individual, not a molecule or a screw in

Wow, Confused China man after economic growth and environmental destruction.

I was sitting still for 4 hours watching An Elephant Sitting Still. However, I did not see an elephant by the end, The final trumpeting might be the last hope for the future, even though they, including me, were not sure whether things will be better if we see that elephant. The feeling seems more or less like Waiting for Godot. I asked myself, why do we live and struggle day by day. The answer is, out of curiosity. I want to see what will happen the next second, or day. Can things be worse or better?