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Review | One Second movie review: Zhang Yimou’s Cultural Revolution-era drama, starring Zhang Yi and Liu Haocun, is an engrossing love letter to cinema
- Veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s film, which was pulled before its premiere in 2019, has finally made it to the big screen
- It follows an escapee from a prison farm and an orphan brought together by a film canister during the Cultural Revolution
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4/5 stars
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More than two years after being unceremoniously yanked from the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival days before its scheduled world premiere, Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s 1970s-set drama One Second finally finds its way to the big screen.
Framed as Zhang’s love letter to cinema, the film sees an escaped convict and an orphaned ruffian brought together by a stolen film canister in the desert wastelands of Gansu province.
Despite the lengthy delay and sanctioned reshoots, Zhang’s film still presents a less than flattering portrait of life during the Cultural Revolution; even as it celebrates the transporting power of cinema, it acknowledges its misuse as a tool for propaganda.
One Second stars Zhang Yi and Liu Haocun, both of whom appeared in Zhang’s subsequent film, the convoluted espionage thriller Cliff Walkers. While that film has been submitted to the Academy Awards as China’s official entry for the best international feature Oscar, One Second is by far the superior work.
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Gorgeously shot in the arid wilderness of northwest China, the film follows Zhang Yi’s unnamed fugitive as he emerges from the sand dunes at a small, isolated town, where he hopes to watch a newsreel playing at the local makeshift cinema.
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