One Second

Before I knew it, the work day was over. Wrapping two hours early is rarely a reality but I used my time wisely back at home to catch up on my film watchlist with One Second, a Chinese movie about an man who has recently broken out of a labour camp for one humble reason: to see a movie with his daughter in... And she's not really in the movie, rather she's in the newsreel portion of it and is in screen for meer moments. Such a charming premise, it's an Asian Cinema Paradisio in a lot of ways since it features a handful of loving shots of audiences being brought together by the power of the screen. It has incredible restraint not to go in for big, saccharine moments though... Even when the film deserves an emotional close up it holds back. It's muted tone is somehow the film's best feature and biggest flaw though as we don't have quite enough space to truly connect with the characters, but there's more than enough charming and inspired images that make the film worthwhile.