In the final shot of Still Life, the tightrope walk scene appears onscreen alongside laborers setting out on the road, their hopes pinned on coal mining jobs. For those who must destroy the very place that was once their livelihood with their own hands—that beautiful place—the perilous coal mine has become their only hope of survival. In the end, the tightrope walk represents the hope they cling to. Though their greatest reward is mere survival, which seems meager compared to the ultimate price of death, they will give everything for that life. In that single tightrope walking scene, Jia Zhang-Ke captures the essence of existence, the very reason to live. Behind Sanming and his wife reuniting after fifteen years, a building collapses. Even if the whole world crumbles this way, Sanming will continue living, as if walking a tightrope, for the family he has found again. That is life. Still Life is, ultimately, a profoundly contemplative film.
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