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and a complex vision which make most films seem elemental.
"The Platform,", "Unknown Pleasures," and "The World," his earlier films, center on young people and their struggles to adapt to political pressures and systems undergoing violent change and which threaten to destroy any individual seen as a threat.
"Still Life," however, centers on the story of a middle-aged man who, for many years, toiled in the dangerous mines of Northern China, all the while mourning the loss of the woman who one day left him, taking his beloved daughter. Finally, after all these years, he goes in search of her, traveling to an area which is being flooded in the largest public works project in Chinese history. The pain of his journey, his dislocation framed by that of the people in this region of drastic transition, and the revolutionary and disturbing changes happening throughout the society carefully are woven into the story of a man no less taciturn, nor heroic, than Leone's, "man with no name."
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...Or real life? No difference.
A master at work.
pianist, playing a tempo just fast enough to hold the melody, just slow enough to allow the passion to flow.
The cinematography, also, is masterful. No "Wow!" factor but an understated beauty and composition, very much like the classic Chinese landscapes the director so admires.
what his budget was on that film?
He must be well connected, politically speaking, to be able to show the authorities in such light. In more than one case they come off as powerful buffoons. Not to speak of the larger comment on the cultural and environmental tragedy.
You're right. I stopped action time after time just to study a scene composition.
Also, he has a keen, absurd sense of humor.....witness the UFO, the building blasting off into the atmosphere, the timing of the controlled blast dropping the skyscraper. This last scene was breathtaking in its lead-up.
One of my favorites from the past few years.
On the Netflix disc I received, there was an extra feature, Dong, a tasty documentary about a contemporary Chinese painter/visual artist. Very beautiful and informative. From the same director, I assume.
When I saw this last year it was titled 'Good people of the Three Gorges' and IMO it and 'Er Shi Si Cheng Ji' ('24 City') make a double bill that will haunt one for days afterward.
There is a whole genre of Chinese film documenting the cultural, historic and human destruction being perpetrated by the Three Gorges (and other modernization programs) in China and Zhang Ke Jia is the master IMO.
J.B.
different but it's the same theme throughout the modern world.
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