Still Life (2006/2008) is like watching two shades of paint dry on a two-toned wall. The paint dries in 1 hour and 48 minutes, but it seems longer.
Alternate review: Still Life does not really say anything but rather paints a canvas which, even though I am not from the culture, I can interpret by projecting onto it what I feel. The two seemingly unrelated stories are actually related in theme, revealing the profound Buddhist philosophical point that all is one. Han Sanming, a coal miner, endures a 5-day journey to Fengjie to look for his wife—well, actually, his daughter—his wife will know where she is. But people are very difficult to find. Very difficult. Suddenly, Shen Hong, a nurse, appears looking for her husband who has been away from her for two years. Is he having an affair with a powerful land developer? People are very difficult to find around Fengjie. Very difficult. The Three Gorges Project has everything in chaos. Having read some Buddhist philosophy, I realize that Director Jia Zhang-ke is saying that we cannot rely on other people for our happiness. The massive human relocation around the dam simply highlights this truth. Etc.
Alternate review: I dare you not to like Still Life. It will reveal how unsophisticated you really are as a film viewer. I am absolutely enthralled when a Chinese man I don’t know anything about walks and walks and walks and we see him from the back. When the narrative suddenly stops half way through the film and a youngish Chinese woman takes over the screen looking for her big-shot husband, I do not wonder who she is. I do not think this might be the grown daughter the Chinese man was looking for. Oh, no, I realize that Jia Zhang-ke’s brilliance is at working making us feel the dislocation as viewers that myriad Chinese workers feel. Etc.
I like the first review much better.