Still Life (2006)

This very brief analysis of Still Life, sitting 15 words above the maximum length for Blurbs (reviewettes), was written after watching the film during the summer between my junior and senior years of college. My overall rating for the film was 4 stars out of a possible 4. It was the 242nd feature-length film to receive my highest rating distinction.

Perhaps the greatest genius of Still Life is how it changes from one story to the other and completely abandons the first for an extended period of time. Shen Hong (Zhao Tao) embarks on a journey and search that merely lasts a few days, while that of Han Sanming (Han Sanming – yes, the actor has the exact same name as his character) extended over weeks. We as an audience witness the first leg of his journey and its stopping point, as he waits in limbo to hear from Brother Ma (Luo Mingwang) about Missy’s (Ma Lizhen) location. The second part of his story is the waiting, and director Jia Zhangke chooses for us to spend this waiting period with the full journey, search, and closure of another individual just like him, only with a different ending in mind. We must first experience the closure of Shen’s story before we are able to see the end of Han’s story. It is only after her closure that the audience is prepared to see his story come to an end. Since the audience has seen one journey begin and pause, then another journey begin and conclude, they understand the process of these similar searches and endured the completion of the latter so they can welcome the completion of the former. But cruelly, Han could not take a detour from his story like we did. He was forced to withstand the entire wait, while we cheated his suffering by jumping over to a story that, while just as patient in pace, came to an end much quicker than his.