Review by Zach Dennis
Known for vibrant landscape and winding epics, Zhang Yimou is more grounded in One Second, a tale that seems to hit close to home with the director’s passion for his craft. While it may seem small on the surface next to other Yimou films such as Hero and Raise the Red Lantern, One Second feels to be a personal project but I’m never sure if we get to the heart of why Yimou wanted to tell this story outside of a love for film.
Zhang Yi in ‘One Second’
The movie follows a drifter (played by Zhang Yi) who is in search of a movie that he says features a clip of his estranged daughter. It’s the middle of the Cultural Revolution in China and the man has escaped from a farm-prison and is on the run.
On his journey, he sees a film reel drop from the messenger’s bag and is scooped up by a street orphan (Liu Haocun). After chasing her down and retrieving the reel, he continues his journey to find the famed “Mr. Movie” (Fan Wei), a projectionist who can show the reel that the man is looking for.
The film reel continues to change hands between the man and the young orphan until finally making it to Mr. Movie, who enlists the help of the rest of the town to save the film strips after an accident on the way there seemingly destroyed them.
Initially set to premiere in 2020, the film was pulled from the Berlin Film Festival due over technical reasons with the festival explaining that there needed to be more work on it. Regardless, the film seems minor from the rest of Yimou’s output that I’ve seen and feels more like the director evoking his own nostalgia for a filmgoing past rather than having a narrative that needed to be told.
Fan Wei and Zhang Yi in ‘One Second’
As the narrative progresses, there isn’t much to do with the main characters and their paths. We learn more about the orphan girl and her brother, but they get sidelined after a bit. The man is shown to have no relationship with his daughter anymore and the reason he wanted to see the film strip with her in it was to at least see her face one last time before the Communist Party found him after his escape.
It’s touching, sure. But ultimately, doesn’t really lead to much other than a standard “the movies!”
One Second is minor Yimou and one that probably will fall to the wayside as the director also releases his new film, Cliffwalkers, later this year. There are better films about appreciation for the movies, and this one never seems to take off in any way that’s truly that interesting.