Overview
A poignant journey through loss and longing in a rapidly changing world.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Slow
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- None
- melancholic
- contemplative
- austere
- quiet evening
- arthouse film night
What critics said
Critics broadly acclaimed Jia Zhangke’s spellbinding, formally distinctive portrait of the human cost of rapid industrialization in modern China.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Jia Zhangke follows Sanming and Shen Hong through unhurried searches, allowing demolition sites, workers, and everyday encounters to unfold with minimal dramatic compression.
Sanming searches for his daughter and former wife while Shen Hong searches for her missing husband, creating two intersecting quests for absent loved ones.
The Three Gorges Dam project transforms Fengjie through demolition, resettlement, and the threat of submerged memories and homes.
The dilapidated town, demolition zones, river, and massive dam landscape embody the pressure of physical transformation on personal remembrance.
Films like Still Life, and why
Platform
shared slow cinema pacing, social realism, and attention to communities transformed by modernization
The World
shared contemplative humanism, working-class characters, and documentary-inflected observation of social change
A Touch of Sin
shared Chinese social realism, intimate personal loss, and scrutiny of economic transformation
Nostalgia for the Light
shared meditative treatment of displacement, memory, and landscape under political and economic pressure
Movie Details
- Director
- Jia Zhangke
- Release Date
- 2006-11-16
- Runtime
- 108 min
- Rating
- 7.2 / 10 (175)
Cast
- Han Sanming
- Zhao Tao
- Wang Hongwei
- Zhubin Li
- Haiyu Xiang
- Lin Zhou
- Lizhen Ma
- Zhou Lan
- Yong Huang
- Jingsheng Li
Where to watch in United States
- Rent
- Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Still Life about?
- Two strangers search for missing loved ones in a Chinese city being erased and remade by the Three Gorges Dam.
- What is Still Life like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Still Life as slow, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Still Life violent?
- No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in Still Life.
- What did critics think of Still Life?
- Critics broadly acclaimed Jia Zhangke’s spellbinding, formally distinctive portrait of the human cost of rapid industrialization in modern China.
- Which films are like Still Life?
- Films with a similar feel include Platform, The World, A Touch of Sin, and Nostalgia for the Light.
- How long is Still Life?
- Still Life runs 108 minutes.
- Where can I watch Still Life?
- In United States, Still Life is available to rent or buy from Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home.
