Jia Zhangke’s films are more about narrative or visuals

Jia Zhangke’s films are narrative-oriented.

Jia Zhangke is famous for his documentary film style, but the fictional elements in his films cannot be ignored. Pure documentary narrative does not exist. In Jia Zhangke’s films, documentary and fiction complement each other.

Among the "sixth generation directors", Jia Zhangke's documentary aesthetics is the most typical. However, the path to reality is not just documentary. In other words, when directors pursue documentary and try their best to flaunt the reality captured by their own lenses, fiction has unconsciously been involved and has become an inseparable part. This is true even for Jia Zhangke, who has set up a big banner in the film industry with documentary.

Representative works:

As a representative of the documentary style, Jia Zhangke insists on using documentary techniques in film creation. In the most representative film "Xiao Wu", Jia Zhangke tried to present the living conditions of ordinary people in the most realistic way, making the film more authentic.

The long lenses, depth of field lenses and fixed camera positions used extensively in movies are all basic means of documentary photography. Shot for tens of seconds, various extras and passers-by completely expose the face of real life to the audience without modification.