One Second

Directed by Zhang Yimou, One Second follows a nameless protagonist (Zhang Yi) as he embarks on a quest to view newsreel featuring his daughter after escaping from a labor camp. Filmmaker Zhang, working from a screenplay written with Zou Jingzhi, delivers a sluggish and perpetually uninvolving drama that gets off to an almost astonishingly underwhelming start, as the movie, which runs an often interminable 105 minutes, opens with an interminable first act that’s predominantly focused on the confusing and entirely ineffective relationship between said protagonist and a scrappy little girl (Liu Haocun’s Liu) – with Zhang’s curiously (and aggressively) context-free approach to this stretch preventing the viewer from working up an ounce of interest in or sympathy for the characters’ meaningless exploits. And although the picture threatens to improve with the introduction of Fan Wei’s appealing Mr. Movie figure, One Second eventually progresses into an endless second half that’s rarely, if ever, able to make the emotional punch for which Zhang is clearly aiming. (This is despite the inclusion of a very small handful of compelling sequences, including a stirring sequence wherein Mr. Movie tells a story about his tragic past.) There’s consequently little doubt that the sentimental bent of the picture’s third act falls completely and hopelessly flat, and it’s clear, ultimately, that One Second comes off as a massive misfire from a decidedly hit-and-miss filmmaker.

* out of ****