China's
STILL LIFE, a 2006 flick directed by Jia Zhangke, is unlike any movie I've ever
seen. It is not a traditional romance, at all, but it is about two characters'
searches for their husband or wife, respectively, set against an almost
apocalyptic backdrop of a changing society.
STILL
LIFE brings a coal miner (Han Sanming) and a nurse (Zhao Tao) from their
province of Shanxi to Fengjie in search of their loved ones. Fengjie is
crumbling as the community gets ready for the completion of a monstrous dam
that will raise water levels so high that most of the city will be drowned in
the process. It seems the biggest part of the economy, at the moment, is
demolition – the characters wander through and live among demolished buildings,
surrounded by rubble.
That
might sound ugly, but the greatest strength of the movie is its beauty. Even
though it is set among the urban ruins of a city straddling a polluted river
under a smoggy sky, shot after shot features breathtaking scenery and memorable
images.
Our two
little lonely characters make their way through these huge landscapes, dwarfed
by the world around them, in two separate but parallel stories of survival.
Han
Sanming is particularly endearing as the coal miner who ends up working with a
demolition crew and forming a bond with his co-workers as he searches for his
wife. He's not to be messed with (he calmly pulls a switch blade on a con-man
in the opening scene) but he's also not dangerous or unpleasant – just a quiet
man who is on a mission and willing to do what he has to do.
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