Ash Is Purest White (2018)
Figures
Objects & symbols
- The recurring UFO motif witnessed by Qiao
Locations
- The depiction of the half-demolished city of Fengjie in the Three Gorges Dam area
Tropes
- Qiao's character arc from gangster's moll to solitary matriarch
- The central relationship between Qiao and Guo Bin
- The film's geographical progression from Datong to the Three Gorges, Xinjiang, and back
- The film's intertextual references to Jia's earlier films, like Unknown Pleasures and Still Life
- The long-term performance of actress Zhao Tao as Qiao across a 17-year span → Durational Aesthetics
- Qiao's individual journey of incarceration, abandonment, and survival over 17 years
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