Amazing how Zhang Yimou manages to express subtle criticism of the regime with a certain playfulness

It’s an understatement to One Second by Zhang Yimou can be described as highly anticipated. More than three years ago, the film by the now 72-year-old Chinese director (The red cornfield† Raise the Red Lantern† hero) the news because he was suddenly taken out of the program a few days before the world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Technical problems during post-production was the official reason. In reality came One Second not at the last minute because of the strict Chinese censorship.

The film is set during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and stories about that period of economic disaster are always sensitive in China. Yimou experienced something similar to his drama Coming Home (2014), in which he was forced to keep out of the picture the persecution and the culture of fear of the regime at the time. The question is therefore to what extent he re-edited and partly re-filmed his One Second has toned down – and whether this is noticeable in the final result.

In the cinema circuit

Appropriately enough, the film is set on the cinema circuit during the Cultural Revolution. An orphaned girl with wild spiky hair steals a can of celluloid: not out of film love, but to turn the material into a lampshade. A prisoner who escaped from a labor camp is actually interested in the newsreel that may be in the can: it is said to show a flash of his lost daughter. The most playful is Meneer Film, a cinema manager who is treated with total respect and who has only an interest in the propaganda film in the can, Heroic Youth, can be seen in all its glory on the canvas in the village. A piece of film can be viewed in many different ways, Yimou shows abundantly.

He who resigns himself to an excess of farcical complications, sees with One Second above all, a beautifully worded love letter to the allure of the cinema. Not original and certainly not free of some stale old man sentiment, but attractively portrayed. It is also clever how Yimou, despite everything, manages to express subtle criticism of the regime with a certain playfulness. The propaganda film in question is about self-improvement, but there is constant fighting in the room and the orphan girl’s brother is bullied.

In short, the cut-away sharp edges are barely noticeable. One Second is a small, soft and ultimately melancholy film.