I enjoyed this film greatly, liked it far more than The World, but one thing I didn't get: what the heck are the UFO's doing there?
I still liked there presence though, the broke the slow pace of the film, and made it less dramatic... as if some aliens are keeping an eye on all what happens...
any thoughts?
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The official explaination from the premiere is those were Jia's imagination when he visited the set by Changjiang River during the shooting of documentary - 'Dong'. Because of the mysterious weather and myths of Sanxia, he felt there might be some aliens looking down on him. Another version in his interview is he hoped there was 'something' that could witness the scene when he experienced a strong affliction and loneliness walking alone by the river, and that's why he started writing the story of 'still life'. The building which took fly is a Migration Monumentum built to the half way due to the short of fund, I can't even find a photo of it on the web. Jia said when he first saw it, he thought it doesn't fit the environment, it should fly away...
All I thought of the UFO scene was how small we are in the cosmos as ppl affected by such a big project, got totally lost by watching the town where their acecetors lived for 2000 years gradually disappearing from the earth. However I dont feel it would do any good to give explainations to those surreal things, just cant help curiousity ;p
Thanks for the explanation, neitherneither.
Jia said when he first saw it, he thought it doesn't fit the environment, it should fly away...Well, he sure had a point there. I loved that scene, especially as it came so unexpectedly. I re-wound the DVD immediately.
In fact, I think it's a good catch. Despite Jia Zhangke's own saying, which I didn't know about, I think the movie has many levels and that much of it may not only cannot but also not allowed under certain circumstance to be elabrated on. Remember this is the first of his many awarded movies to be allowed to reach the public in china for obvious reasons.
I myself think the UFOs and the "space shuttle" thing are just manifestation of the development, the constuction and the "grand project" of Sanxia Dam that are so alien to the people and the magnificent land down there.
As a documentary it has all my attention, as a movie... no. Really, I'm still confused in judgeing it as a movie.
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