Alchohol Cigarettes Tea?


In the film the words Alcohol, Cigarettes, and Tea were written across the screen. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what was the point of this?

reply

Good question. And don't forget Toffee.

reply

The explanation can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Life_(2006_film)#Style

reply

These four are the most common gifts when you're visiting relatives and friends. I'm not sure about the symbolic meaning the director is trying to deliver. Maybe there is no special intention. Like other great artwork, there can be lots of different interpretations.

reply

The simplest explanation: they are sequence titles. Just like the twelve titles of Andrei Rublev. However, these titles appear in the end of a sequence, except the last in the beginning. And yes they all indicate a social situation: the protagonist offers liquor to his brother who refuses to accept it etc.

reply

In the context of the destruction in which the characters go about, environmental destruction/transformation, there is also a human or social destruction/transformation. It's social chaos. I see these signs as sort of touchstones or landmarks of social relations in China. They're all about creating social relation, while everything else falls apart.

reply