Destruction, Moral Nihilism and the Poetics of Debris in Jia Zhangke's Still Life

Abstract

Jia Zhangke's 2006 digital feature Still Life exhibits two impulses in its creation process: one is moral admonition, the other is aesthetic meditation. Jia's moral preoccupation is mainly mediated through the sound effects while his aesthetic obsession is prominently conveyed through visual spectacles. The aestheticization of the bare materials, as pre-linguistic existence, creates a “poetics of debris” which constantly disrupts and subverts the narrative flow of the film. The poetics of debris exceeds the narrative intention of the displaced, enchanted director but, unexpectedly, brings his social critique to a more profound level.

Notes

Jia Zhangke's film Still Life was the winner of the 2006 Golden Lion Award at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival.

“Any old wine bottles for sale?” (jiugan tang maiwu) was a song used in the 1983 Taiwan film Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (Da cuo che).

Deng Xiaoping gave the dictum, “development is the absolute principle,” in one of his talks during his journey to the southern cities in China. See “Excerpts from Talks Given in Wuchang, Shenzhen Zhuhai, and Shanghai,” January 18–February 21, 1992.

The distance between Shanxi Province and Fengjie is over 700 miles.

Brother Mark (xiaoma ge) is the name of a gangster hero in the 1986 Hong Kong movie A Better Tomorrow (Yingxiong bense). That character was played by the Hong Kong actor Yun-Fat Chow.

Brother Mark's sentence is borrowed from the hero Ah Jong (played by Yun-Fat Chow) in John Woo's film Bloodshed of Two Heroes [1989].

See Elbert Ventura's review of Platform at: http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=503283&mp=cr& (accessed May 28, 2011).

“Chuantong genwo taiyou guanxi le” (“Tradition has everything to do with me”). An Interview with Jia Zhangke. http://big5.china.com.cn/chinese/feature/524216.htm (accessed May 28, 2011).

“Still Life: Looking at Jia Zhang-ke's Recent Masterpiece.” http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/58/58stilllife.php (accessed May 28, 2011).

Brecht's play is also known as The Good Woman of Sechuan.

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Notes on contributors

Ping Zhu

PING ZHU is Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Oklahoma. She received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University in 2010. Her research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese literature and film, psychoanalysis, and women's and gender studies.