Review of Still Life (2015) by Qi Z — 27 Oct 2015

"In a bright and beautiful large city, a young and handsome man works for an important enterprise. He uses high technology and his work is fast and efficient. His boss admires him. Very soon, he gets promoted, becomes the center of attention and fame, finds a beautiful woman, and lived happily ever after. ".

Fairy tale for a movie, right? Or haven't we seen it for a thousand times in movies, self-help, and TED talks?

This is the exact opposite.

John May, a short and plain middle-aged civil servant, lived in an obscure little town in UK. His job was to close death cases that have no family claims. He worked slowly and meticulously, trying to locate survivors of the dead. In most cases, the survivors do not want anything to do with the dead. John arranged appropriate funeral rites for each deceased, writing out eulogies with information he gathered, and often the only attendee throughout. He lived a solitary life. His only hobby was meditating upon the photos of the deceased people he worked with.

The photos were faces taken in time of youth, happiness, friendship and family time. John gazed upon them, knowing these were the lives he encountered. Not the corpses left in the squalid apartment.

His boss, a young and handsome man, found his work too slow, and dismayed by John's attentiveness. "Let the dead be dead, alright?" Soon, John was replaced by a cheerful perky young woman, who could not bother much with the dead. No more funerals with music and eulogies; just boxes of ashes discarded in a single hole. She was fast and efficient indeed.

John wanted to close his last case - William Stoker. A man who lived vigorously and violently, full of passion and fury, broken by alcohol and mental disease. In looking for Stoker, John found remembrances of love and friendship despite all the damages that Stoker left behind. Through John, the good of Stoker was recovered and remembered.

We remember the dead not because of they were good, but because our lives were shaped by them.

This movie did not slip into the easy, sentimental happy ending. It remains a subdued and beautiful elegiac about the fragility in human life and our limited ability to cope and endure. Maybe the true light of our consciousness is the ability is empathy and care for one and other.