It's been a while since I posted a review of a film, and that's mostly due to the fact that I simply haven't felt like it or watched many films that I felt were worthy of reviewing.
Though, recently I had the pleasure of watching An Elephant Sitting Still, a small, relatively unknown film that I had no prior knowledge of outside of being aware of the tragic suicide of its director, Hu Bo. Previously being an author, and with a film adaptation of one of his stories, he had is directorial debut, with his death following shortly after production finished.
Knowing this gives the film even more depth than it already has, it's hard to watch the film without feeling connected to the thoughts and struggles of its director and writer. Crippling nihilism, existentialism, and extreme poverty are this film's main elements. Elements that are enough to bring a person to their lowest, with no intention of attempting to climb from it.
Hitting in at a near 4 hour length, the film follows four different people throughout a single day. Each character living in a poverty-stricken part of China's Jingxing County, and each of them becoming fascinated by this tale of an elephant in Manzhouli, known for simply sitting still at all times as the world goes by. It's easy for one to make up reasons as to why these characters hold this concept so close to them: perhaps this concept reconciles with their own inability to find will to live? Perhaps these characters feel a connection to this elephant for the fact that they, too, sit by in a world that is forever passing by as they attempt to get by and observe.
Life extends far beyond the fact that you merely exist. For being conscious in the present means nothing to those who have no reason to be in the first place. "The world is a wasteland." A quote found both in the trailer and the dialogue from a character seemingly on the brink of losing his sanity as a result of his depressive mental state. Following each character throughout one chaotic, stress-ridden day is done so through incredibly long scenes, typically done in a manner in which the camera roams slowly around the rooms, following the characters and their surroundings as if it were some ghostly apparition in a perpetual state of curiosity, incapable of sitting still. Fan Chao's cinematography remains a fundamental piece of this saddening puzzle, which slowly comes together as the character's paths entwine.
An Elephant Sitting Still has you feeling for each of the characters. Each being a victim of life itself. Having been dealt a series of unfortunate cards. But more importantly, it has you witnessing the artistic potential of its creator. Tragically cut short, clearly destined to create greatness, but unfortunately being stuck in the mindset that the world is nothing more than a wasteland.
