Still Life (Sanxia haoren) (2006) is a Chinese film directed by Jia Zhangke. It tells the story of people forced to leave their town due to the construction of a dam, and their return. It was shot in the old village of Fengjie, a small town on the Yangtze River, destroyed by the building of the Three Gorges Dam. The film premiered at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and was a surprise winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film.




As the 63rd Venice Film Festival came to a close, winners were announced from the twenty-two films in competition. Chinese feature “Still Life” by (Sanxia Haron) took the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize for best feature film. Director Jia Zhang-Ke, whose previous efforts “The World” and “Platform” competed in past years, took the award for his sixth feature.




Sanxia haoren (Still Life) was shot in the old village of Fengjie, which has since been upset by the building of the Three Gorges Dam. In Jia Zhang-Ke’s film, the old village of Fengjie has already been submerged, but a new district, set to spring up in the surrounding area, is still under construction. Some things are to be saved, whilst others are to be left behind. Han Sanming, a miner, comes to Fengjie in search of his former wife, who he has not seen for 16 years. They meet by the Yangzi river, and decide to remarry. Shen Hong, a nurse, comes to Fengjie to look for her husband, who has not been back home for two years. They embrace before the Three Gorges Dam. Although they do share a dance together, they sadly give up and decide to divorce.




CHINA’s colossal Three Gorges Dam is the extraterrestrial setting for Jia Zhang-ke’s latest foray into the socio-economic surreal; a perverse dreamscape of industrial wasteland, scenic splendor, and frightening architectural feats. Despite having to contend with a perpetual polluted haze, Jia’s fifth feature is another work of astonishing clarity on the effects of a nation’s insatiable appetite for growth.




Negating the still waters of the rising Yangtze River are two lost souls: Han Sanming (playing himself), a mainlander seeking his ex-wife who may or may not have been relocated from her to-be-submerged village; and Shen Hong (Jia muse Zhao Tao), a city dweller determined to confront her absentee husband, now working under auspices of the ceaseless Dam project. As the parallel search parties meander across a topography resembling a war zone, Martian panorama, and futuristic colony all at once, the classic Jia Zhang-ke landmarks are mapped out with acute familiarity: the polarity of old and new, the scars of unremitting change, and the human debris of those left in its wake.




Attempting to ride its wave are Chinese who share a craving for globalisation: the men wear nothing but y-fronts, yet all carry cellphones; traces of Kylie Minouge and Chow Yun Fat reverberate (ironically, seen in A Better Tomorrow); even inanimate objects are not immune, and as if succumbing to modernisation, break free from their environment and ‘take off’. Lumiere.net




Three Gorges Dam, an engineering behemoth scheduled to displace over one million citizens, imposes itself unavoidably, but also feels less of a stagy conceit. Jia’s one concession is to turn his camera on the lighting of a spectacular, newly erected suspension bridge down river, emerging suddenly from the dusk, yet leading seemingly to nowhere – an empire symbol of China’s impetuous, new capitalist economy. Lumiere.net




Elsewhere though, the signs point to a filmmaker beginning a transition: forgone are the youth-crisises; no longer is the outlook for his characters quite as bleak. Jia’s approach meanwhile is more impersonal and pensive, but clearly still one-of-a-kind. Six years on from the extraordinary Platform, Still Life retains a cogency in national commentary, remains eye opening and occasionally amusing in its social illustrations, and continues to show compassion for those caught in the maelstrom – all the while forging onwards as a potential departure point in its director’s ourvre. Whatever lies ahead for Jia, the rapid and correlative effects of China’s advance will ensure he has the material to keep moving forward. Lumiere.net




Born 1970 in Fenyang, China, Jia Zhang Ke is a Chinese film director. He has been often grouped with other "Sixth Generation" directors such as Wang Xiaoshuai and Lou Ye.Jia first appeared on the Chinese film scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s with a string of internationally acclaimed independent features including 2000's Platform (Zhantai) , Unknown Pleasures (Ren xiao yao), and The World (Shijie). In 2004 his film, The World (Shijie), was nominated for a Golden Lion award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. The World was also Jia's first film made with official approval by the Chinese government. This foreshadowed his winning the 2006 Golden Lion award for his film, Still Life (Sanxia haoren). Jia's next film, Tattoo Age (Ciqing shidai) is to be released in 2008. Jia Zhang Ke is also a member of the jury of BigScreen Italia Film Festival 2006, in Kunming, China.