STILL LIFE
China, 2006, 108 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Jia Zhang- Ke.
Still Life was the winner of the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice film festival. The surprise film of the festival, it was introduced late in the day and surprised most people in winning the main prize. The director’s previous films, Platform and The World were also screened at Venice film festivals and his Unknown Pleasures screened in Cannes. He has a high profile in the West, especially in the festival world.
This film is more accessible than his previous films. It is set in the Three Gorges area of China and was filmed on location, taking advantage of the completion of long-term plans to build an enormous dam at the convergence of rivers at the Three Gorges. Needless to say, much of the scenic aspects of the film are quite spectacular.
The film focuses on several stories of characters involved in the building of the dam – as well as the consequences of flooding various towns and the relocation of people to new homes. One of the stories involves a worker who comes from the countryside seeking the wife who left him some time earlier with their daughter. He finds that the house has been submerged. He goes to work on the dam as well as the work of demolition of buildings before the floods come. Another story involves a woman coming to see her engineer husband who works on the site whom she has not seen for some years. She wants to announce her divorce. With the various human stories interacting with the social commentary about the building of the dam and its consequences, the film offers a complex insight into contemporary Chinese life and society.
The film also has a touch of magic realism – especially in a scene where behind two of the characters speaking, one of the buildings is launched into space like a rocket. This adds a poetic and ironic comment on the realism of what has happened to the Yangtze River at the Three Gorges.
1. The reputation of the director? His portraits of China? His portraits of provincial China?
2. The location, the village, the Three Gorges, the Yangtze River, the dam and its construction? Filming in the middle of buildings under collapse, of water coming through the dam wall? Authentic?
3. The presentation of ordinary Chinese, from the villages, in the towns, those who had to move because of the submerging of the towns, officialdom, the bigger hotels, the engineers, the working class and the employer class? The change from Mao Tse- Tung’s China? The musical score, the modern songs, the dancing? Opening to the 21st century?
4. The title, the director’s comment on going into rooms and seeing dust on objects, the still life and what underlies the still life? The history?
5. The focus on San Ming, the miner, his having separated from his wife sixteen years earlier, his not having seen his daughter? His getting on the boat, travelling on the ferry, his poverty, the artists on board and the magic tricks about money, their demands on him, his not having anything? Landing, the motorcycle driver, taking him to the address, his discovery that the address was submerged? His being taken to the office, their not being able to help, the faulty perspective? The driver taking him to a friend, bargaining for the room? His being at home in the room? Going out to work, on construction and the demolition of buildings? The details of his life, the work? His meeting with the young man, his wanting to be a gangster type, looking at the television, lighting the cigarettes, going out with the group to bash others? His friendship with San Ming? San Ming, his search for his wife, gradually getting information? Her arrival, the meeting after so long, the discussion about their daughter, her saying that she was so young in the past? The possibility of a future together? San Ming as the typical worker on this kind of site? His old life gone, his old village gone, his traditions gone – having to face progress and the 21st century?
6. The transition to the story of the nurse, Shen Hong, her coming to the town to look for her husband, his absence for two years, being busy in the construction? Her not staying long? Meeting the assistant, his trying to mollify the news? Their discussions, her going out, the dinner, watching the dancing, dancing with the friend? Her regrets about the collapse of their marriage, her finally meeting her husband? The talk, the silences, her walking away, his following in the car, the dam, the buildings surrounding them – and the surrealistic touch with the modern strange building taking off like a rocket? The discussion about the marriage, embracing, dancing – and then her telling him about falling in love with someone else, the decision about the divorce?
7. The two stories as the focus of the narrative, two different people, two different classes, being affected by the transition of the Three Gorges Dam?
8. The importance of the town, the buildings, their collapsing? The new buildings? The bridges, the engineering and architecture, the bridges being lit? The Three Gorges and the natural beauty? The ferries and the tourists on the river, going to the dam? The water rising over one hundred and fifty metres?
9. A portrait of China at the beginning of the 21st century? Immersing the audience in its way of life, the transition from the communist era, its future?
