One Second (2020)
(Yi miao zhong)
Country: CHI/HK
Technical: col/2.39:1 104m
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Zhang Yi, Haocun Liu, Wei Fan
Synopsis:
A father roams the wasteland of western China in the 1960s, desperate to find a town with a cinema which is showing that month's newsreel. In it lies footage of his daughter, who has been placed on a workers' competitive programme to atone for his relegation to a labour camp as a 'bad element'.
Review:
The centrepiece of this affecting portrait of paternal love transferred is a scene in which the film, having been half dragged through the desert, is washed and dried by reverent villagers. What follows is reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso, except that they are watching, and clearly enjoying, a piece of party propaganda. The power of cinema to transform lives is captured, then belied by a lost fragment of film which, in the final shot, takes second place to the here and now.
(Yi miao zhong)
Country: CHI/HK
Technical: col/2.39:1 104m
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Zhang Yi, Haocun Liu, Wei Fan
Synopsis:
A father roams the wasteland of western China in the 1960s, desperate to find a town with a cinema which is showing that month's newsreel. In it lies footage of his daughter, who has been placed on a workers' competitive programme to atone for his relegation to a labour camp as a 'bad element'.
Review:
The centrepiece of this affecting portrait of paternal love transferred is a scene in which the film, having been half dragged through the desert, is washed and dried by reverent villagers. What follows is reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso, except that they are watching, and clearly enjoying, a piece of party propaganda. The power of cinema to transform lives is captured, then belied by a lost fragment of film which, in the final shot, takes second place to the here and now.
(Yi miao zhong)
Country: CHI/HK
Technical: col/2.39:1 104m
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Zhang Yi, Haocun Liu, Wei Fan
Synopsis:
A father roams the wasteland of western China in the 1960s, desperate to find a town with a cinema which is showing that month's newsreel. In it lies footage of his daughter, who has been placed on a workers' competitive programme to atone for his relegation to a labour camp as a 'bad element'.
Review:
The centrepiece of this affecting portrait of paternal love transferred is a scene in which the film, having been half dragged through the desert, is washed and dried by reverent villagers. What follows is reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso, except that they are watching, and clearly enjoying, a piece of party propaganda. The power of cinema to transform lives is captured, then belied by a lost fragment of film which, in the final shot, takes second place to the here and now.