Maps of Movies

Still Life (2006)

Where Still Life says it takes place, and where it was really shot.

A small town on the Yangtze that is being flooded while two strangers look for their spouses: where Jia Zhangke actually filmed it

Scenes and places

The address under the water

Han Sanming steps into Fengjie, a county marked for flooding, looking for the wife who left with their daughter sixteen years ago. He asks to be driven to his former address and finds the neighborhood already under water. The place he is searching for no longer exists.

Set in Fengjie — Han Sanming arrives in a county marked for flooding and asks to be driven to his old address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Fengjie is a small town on the Yangtze River that was being demolished and flooded for the Three Gorges Dam.

Filmed at Fengjie old town (exact spot not identified) (Fengjie County, Chongqing, Fengjie, China) — The film was shot on location in Fengjie; the exact street is not named in the sources. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

The municipal office

Sanming goes to the local municipal office hoping to learn where his wife is. The attempt fails, and he leaves with nothing. He has to look for her another way.

Set in Fengjie municipal office — Sanming tries to get his wife's information from the local office.

The brother-in-law's rickety boat

Sanming visits a rickety boat owned by his wife's brother. The brother says the wife and daughter work downriver in Yichang, but that if Sanming stays in the county they will eventually return. Sanming decides to wait.

Set in Brother-in-law's boat, Fengjie — Sanming visits the old boat of his wife's brother, who tells him to wait.

Yichang, where they are said to work

Yichang is first just a name: the city downriver where Sanming's wife and daughter are said to work, according to her brother. Sanming still has to wait in Fengjie.

Set in Yichang — The downriver city where Sanming is told his wife and daughter work. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Demolition work in the old town

To fill the wait, Sanming takes a job on a demolition crew, found through a local teen gangster known as Brother Mark. He now tears down the buildings of the town he came to find his wife in. The days of work set up the friendships he will rely on later.

Set in Demolition sites, Fengjie — Sanming joins a demolition crew while he waits. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Fengjie is a small town on the Yangtze River that was being demolished and flooded for the Three Gorges Dam.

Filmed at Fengjie old town (exact spot not identified) (Fengjie County, Chongqing, Fengjie, China) — Most of the film's scenes were done in Fengjie; no specific demolition site is named in the sources. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

The terrace where Shen Hong looks for her husband

In the film's second story, nurse Shen Hong arrives in Fengjie looking for her husband, who left their home two years earlier. She asks his friend Wang Dongming for help, and he lets her stay at his home. He will not tell her whether her husband is seeing someone else.

Set in Wang Dongming's home, Fengjie — Shen Hong stays with her husband's friend, who will not say whether he is having an affair.

Dongguan, the city to the south

Sanming learns that his daughter now works further south in Dongguan, far from the Yangtze and from Fengjie.

Set in Dongguan — The southern city where Sanming learns his daughter works. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Shanxi, where both of them come from

Both leads come from Shanxi province: Sanming is a coal miner and Shen Hong is a nurse. Each has travelled from there to Fengjie to find a missing spouse.

Set in Shanxi province — The coal-mining home province of both Sanming and Shen Hong.

Characters

• Han Sanming — A coal miner from Shanxi who returns to Fengjie to find the wife and daughter he has not seen in 16 years.
• Shen Hong — A nurse from Shanxi who comes to Fengjie to find her husband, who has barely been in touch for two years.