Sanxia haoren (2006)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Zhang Ke Jia

Writers:

Zhang Ke Jia (screenplay) and
Na Guan (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

16 November 2006 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Citizens return to a flooded town to salvage what they can and say good-bye to things they lost.

Plot Keywords:

Ex Wife | River | Dam | Tea | Liquor

Awards:

9 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Tao Zhao	...	Shen Hong
Zhou Lan	...	Huang Mao
Sanming Han	...	Sanming
Lizhen Ma	...	Missy Ma
Hongwei Wang	...	Wang Dongming
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kai Chen
Ronghu Chen
Jian Chieng
Chuanan Fang
Zhongming He
Yong Huang
Deping Jiang
Shiping Jiang
Tianyah Lan
Bin Li
Fengmin Li
Jingsheng Li
Lunshuang Li
Changqiao Liu
Ping Liu
Yougzhong Li
Younghu Li
Zhubin Li
Xiaomao Long
Mingwang Luo
Qiang Lu
Xiang Ma
Jianlin Pan
Zhugui Qian
Changxiu Tan
Ling Tang
Jiquan Tian
Jianghong Wang
Qingsung Wang
Shengfu Wei
Haiyu Xiang
Longzhen Yang
Shengtao Yang
Daiqi Yu
Shengquan Zhang
Zuoping Zhang
Lin Zhou
Jicheng Zhu
Yong Zhung
Xiaoping Zou

Directed by
Zhang Ke Jia

Writing credits
Zhang Ke Jia		(screenplay)
Na Guan		writer
Jiamin Sun		writer

Produced by
Keung Chow	....	executive producer
Bo Dan	....	executive producer
Zhang Ke Jia	....	co-producer
Zhong-lun Ren	....	executive producer
Tianyan Wang	....	producer
Tianyun Wang	....	executive producer
Pengle Xu	....	producer
Jiong Zhu	....	executive producer
Jiong Zhu	....	producer

Original Music by
Giong Lim

Cinematography by
Nelson Yu Lik-wai		(as Lik Wai Yu)

Film Editing by
Jing Lei Kong

Production Design by
Jing Dong Liang
Qiang Liu

Art Department
Xudong Lin	....	artistic consultant

Sound Department
You Wang	....	sound designer
Yang Zhang	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Eddy Wong	....	visual effects supervisor
Victor Wong	....	visual effects supervisor

Editorial Department
Jia Zhang	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Yu Feng	....	script supervisor
Richard Lormand	....	publicist: international
Ting Wang	....	production accountant

Thanks
Lin Li	....	thanks
Hongbing Tang	....	thanks
Cheng Wang	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Shanghai Film Studios
• Xstream Pictures

Distributors

• 791 Cine (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Ad Vitam Distribution (2007) (France) (theatrical)
• Delphi Filmverleih Produktion (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• New Yorker Films (2008) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• NonStop Entertainment (2007) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Lucky Red (2006) (Italy) (all media)

Also Known As:

Still Life (International: English title) (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Brazil:12 | South Korea:12 | UK:PG | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Fengjie, China

Company:

Shanghai Film Studios

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2007 (#02, tied with "Inland Empire" and "Death Proof").

Quotes:

Brother Mark: You're a nostalgist.
Shen Hong: We can't forget who we are.

Jia Zhang-ke continues with his good work while becoming a little more accessible

China's sixth generation director Jia Zhang-ke's recent Golden Lion winner at Venice is slightly more accessible to the general audience than his previous work, although Shijie (2004) has been heading generally towards that direction. Unlike Xiao Wu (1997), which is completely devoid of story or plot, Still Life at least has a story (in fact two) of sorts but, to Jia credit, stays away from the conventional Hollywood melodrama formula. The last thing we need is another Hollywood-look-alike movie made by a Chinese director who gives up what he is good at to impersonate a Hollywood director. There are already too many.

The story of the Three Gorges Dam begs to be told. Jia tells it from a micro, personal angle, by weaving two separate stories together, with the Three Gorges Dam project not just as a backdrop, but also as a subject of enquiry. In polarized contrast to the gorgeous tourism posters, Jia's camera shows the devastation along the Gorges in a way that almost reminds you of the ruins in Polanski's "The pianist". In the two unrelated stories, two people arrive in the same riverside town, a nurse looking for her husband who seems to have lost interest in her, and a coalminer searching for his wife who left him, taking with her their daughter.

These stories are told in Jia's usual minimalist style, but with pain sticking attention to details. Instead of the dialogue, it's the nuances, the body language, and even the framing of the shot that reveals. New to Jia's screen are moments of playful, surprising touches as if the director is saying "Hey, I can handle surreal too". The appropriate use of pop music from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland of China adds to the dimension and depth of the film.

True to his tradition, Jia films the life of ordinary people just as it is. The coalminer in Still Life is one in real life, and a relative of Jia. He even uses his real name Han San-ming. True to his tradition again, Jia uses only one professional actor, Zhao Tao, but she is so good that you can't tell her apart from the rest of the "cast" in terms of being an authentic, ordinary person that Jia might have just picked from a crowd in the street.

I miss Jia's earlier work such a Xiao Wu, for its uniqueness and detached, realistic depiction of lives of real people. On the other hand, I don't mind his introduction of conventional "entertaining" elements, so long as he stops before, way before, succumbing to the senseless scramble of the Chinese 5th generation directors to capture the Hollywood market. Many a soul has been sold for fame and fortune.