Still Life is not your average movie. I understood this fact about the movie in the first 3-4 minutes when the camera panned giving us the view of people on a ship playing and chatting - ordinary people. Yes. This is what Still Life is all about - Ordinary Chinese People. The film is a glimpse into their lives, how they struggle against mass displacement with the construction of the Three Gorges dam.At first, I was looking for some 'plot' - this movies offers none of that. I wanted to find such a plot in the first half hour of the film, i did not get it (which slightly ruined my interpretation of this work). It does not set out to tell the viewer a story. It sets out to show us how Chinese people are effected by such a massive project, how their relationships get demolished and how relationships get formed as previous relationships get broken. It is something that ordinary cinema can not offer. Be prepared.And as a final note: Don't expect a story to be laid out before you. This is as artsy as a movie can get - it simply lays out a picture before you. It is you, the viewer who has to form your own interpretation of this beautiful work.

I knew little about the work of director Jia Zhang Ke, and Still Life (or The Good People of the Three Gorges) provides me with an excellent introduction to his work.Several films have been done to depict the changes, to the lives of many residents, associated with the Three Gorges project. Still Life is one of them but also uses this backdrop to tell two stories of man-women relationship, its disintegration and possible reconciliation.The movie is slow moving, but at a pace relevant to the sentiment being conveyed. The camera work is great. Acting, most likely by non-professional actors, was solid.I was in the Three Gorges area some 10 years ago before the commencement of the Project, and could relate to the scenery and people in that area. The film was done without excessive sentiment, and director Jia took his time to tell the stories in an unpretentious and yet elaborate fashion.I highly recommend the film, and will seek out Jia's work in the future.

The Three Gorges Dam project in China, which will provide hydroelectric power but will cause the submersion of villages along the river bank, is the background of this film. Along with that, the film documents the stories of Sanming and Shen Hong, whose respective spouses have left them. Both are traveling to villages that are going to be submerged and are currently being demolished by unskilled labor, to find them. The cinematography in this film is excellent, illustrating the perpetually foggy conditions and the demolition work that is being done. The two people who star in this film play this so much like real life the movie seems almost like an intimate documentary. The story told in this film is one that is going on right now, mainly people being displaced from their homes and being sent elsewhere. The film is almost at a glacial pace, but that is necessary. I was more interested in Shen Hong's story until Sanming's story was resolved. This film has some sadness attached to it, you do feel for these displaced people. This film is not for everyone due to its slow pacing, but its an important film about the Three Gorges Dam project, how it affects the people impacted directly. Not all progress is good for everyone.

I watched Still Life yesterday night, it was recently released over here in Germany. It's a fantastic movie with gorgeous photography and possibly because the lives, lifestyles and scenery depicted in Still Life were so completely alien to me, it felt like a documentary. Great soundtrack, too. I was literally spell-bound, the movie drew me in completely and I felt quite dazed when I walked out of the cinema. I'd watched the movie with a friend and we got talking about our reactions to the film. I would have loved to quiz the rest of the cinema audience as to their reactions to the movie.Still Life received a good bit of positive press over here in Europe (at least in those magazines/papers covering foreign movies/world cinema) but I also know several people who watched it and left halfway through because they were bored and 'there was nothing happening'. And I bet that this was a fairly typical reaction of the average European/Western cinema-goer. Yes, there is an almost total absence of sprightly dialogue or exciting action (unless you count the two UFOs...) and if you grew up with the classic Western/US style of film-making and your usual film fare is whatever Hollywood movies are shown at your local cinema, then Still Life will come as an unpleasant surprise, maybe because it is simply too different in visual style, content, pace and imagery to the average European/Western movie.Personally, I think there should be more of these type of films over here. I really hope Still Life will be released on DVD in Europe otherwise I'll have to order it from a website or something and hang the expense!