Jia Zhangke hits the right notes in the Chinese drama of lost and found, 'Still Life'. Two spouses look for their respective partners the old village of Fengjie. It's slow, but steady and thoroughly engaging. The one take approach certainly helps things feel authentic. Final Score: 8.0/10

Jia Zhangke is one of China's most influential director. Jia's camerawork in Still Life is constantly on the move, panning across men and vistas. Slow pans of men and landscapes marks the film's primary visual style. This style has been compared to the work of Italian film maker Michelangelo Antonioni. The story about the underdogs of Fenjie village (centers around 2 characters) as they struggle with urban displacement in the building of the Three Gorges Dam Project. The construction of the world's largest hydro-electric project ultimately benefits other villages more although it is the villagers of Fenjie who sacrificed most for it. The film premiered at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and was a winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film.

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.

I'm going to rip on this movie so much, so first I'll talk about what I like. I like that it partially deals with a regional issue - a flood which has caused people to move out from the area in which the film takes place. I like the aspect of the two characters having the same quest - looking for somebody to finish unsettled business, though one is more successful than the other. Basically, the rest of the film was not captivating to me at all. There weren't really any memorable lines, and good lines are what people take away from films because words sometimes inspire us more than just the images within film even though film is a visual medium. There was a use of special effects at one point of this film, and I really did not understand its purpose at all. We see this certain structure a few times throughout the film (it is difficult to describe) and at one point, this structure randomly produces fire at its base and takes off like a rocket. It seemed so out of place for this movie, which seemed to deal with very real dramatic situations. Though I know art cinema deals with narration over narrative, the narration wasn't even worth the experience for this film (should I even call it an art film?) Maybe it's just me, but I really didn't relate to any characters in this film, it didn't look great visually, and there was no memorable dialogue in Still Life. While it dealt with dramatic situations this film was the antithesis of entertaining. If you're an avid film critic, give this a spin and prove me wrong, but you will hate this if you're looking for a good time.

For those interested, it's a Yimou style slow dramatized doc. Could've used a little something more but it has breath taking environments mixed with modern squalor. Interesting and meditative.

É por meio de seu belo "Em Busca da Vida" que o cineasta chinês Zhang Ke Jia efetua um sutil retrato da constante concentração das forças e anseios humanos em uma imagem idealizada da realidade coletiva e/ou particular - e para tanto o diretor ainda se utiliza de outro instigante retrato relacionado à condição econômica, social e cultural de seu país. Leia mais: http://cinema-mon-amour31.webnode.com/news/em-busca-da-vida-sanxia-haoren-de-zhang-ke-jia-china-2006-/

i think it was so cool to film at the massive 3 gorges dam project and interesting story too this is an awesome pic

A man and a woman return to a town that was purposely flooded and is being destroyed to say goodbye to things and people they missed and lost. Zhangke Jia doesn't rush things in telling his story, neither does he present his characters and his situations in an overblown way. The simplicity and sheer beauty of his work as well as the slowness of the pace makes this seem like a deeply reflective, genuine and intimate look at the industrialisation of modern China that feels naturally tinted with honest nostalgia. Though the evident mark of helplessness and a large degree of passivity makes this film a little uneasy to watch, there is no doubt about the impact of the representative message that Still Life portrays so well.

Two stories about lost matrimonies which are transforming like the area itself. Whilst the Yangtze River is being flooded the stories take slow turns to culminate in divorce or new found beginnings. Although the stories are being told very slowly the happenings go deep and keep you captured until the last moment.

can't say anything but i've just seen a masterpiece.. and i don't know how this not a very recognized movie.

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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

Beautiful. And so ugly. Yet, somehow, the ugliness only seems to enhance the beauty. I did feel that the plot could have been executed a little better, but the musical score and cinematography more than make up for what is lacking there. Jia Zhang-Ke is an incredible filmmaker, and I definitely will be checking out his other work.

Dog eats dog. Unlike anything else!

This is centered around the largest dam in the world - Three Gorges, which became a place of cultural and political discord, due to environmental and humanitarian concerns. Because of this dam, not only a million people were displaced; But as a result, a complete history was swept away. But as we know about the maker of this movie i.e. Mr Jia, we must anticipate a poem of desolation in here. Mr Jia feels comfortable in the beautiful, strange and blank spaces. Here, he creates a literal limbo between state-controlled sputtering communism and state-sanctioned unripened capitalism. And hence, the young people confused about what they wanted their existence to be.

Director Jia Zhangke's long take-filming rewards the patient film-viewer, as every square inch of the screen brims with intelligence and insight.

Jia Zhang-ke is an extraordinary observer of an ever-changing China. With Still Life, Zhang-ke focuses more on two characters rather than an ensemble and the viewer gets a more intimate portrait. The two characters - a man and a woman - are both separately looking for their spouses in a town about to be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam in China. Through this set-up, the viewer peers into a new China, one being swallowed up by Western influences, while the old China is seemingly being flooded out. Each frame of this film is telling a story. A masterwork from one of cinema's newest great filmmakers.

Another one of those quiet, melancholy, and meditative Hong Kong films that seemingly -- at least on the surface -- meanders without much purpose; a closer inspection reveals its subtle, yet eloquent, expression of personal loss. It's absorbing.

Slow and obviously low budget, it still manages to be beautiful and innovative.

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 provides for some powerful shots that have formed him into one of China's foremost artistic commentators, but this also diminishes the entertainment value (which, in my opinion, shouldn't have to be compromised in this type of filmmaking).