OUR TIME WILL COME
China, 2018, 130 minutes, Colour.
Xun Zhou, Eddie Peng, Wallace Huo, Deannie Ip, Tony Ka Fai Leung.
Directed by Ann Hui.
The Chinese film industry has been strong on producing films about the Japanese invasion and occupation in the 1930s, the siege of Nanking, the resistance during World War II. This is another strong example, directed by veteran Hong Kong Director, Ann Hui.
The narrative has three interconnected thrusts.
One focus is on a young woman, a teacher, living with her mother, proposed to by a chef, her putting it off because of the war, his going to work for the Japanese, undercover as a spy.
The initial action concerns intellectuals in Hong Kong and resistance movements organising their escape, over 800. One of the intellectuals, a poet, whose words are cited throughout the film, stays with the young woman and her mother. There is an attempt on the author’s life but he is rescued by the resistance, taken to a boat with many others, taken to the mainland and a convoy established to get them through to safety – even with an encounter with rebels and a deal done with them to be allowed to pass through their territory.
The young woman, because she is being caught up in the action, and encounters one of the rebels and is urged to join the group in Hong Kong. She does, her mother worried about her. The film shows the activities, communicating messages – and her mother offering to carry messages to save her daughter. The mother is arrested, pleading ignorance and inability to write, but is imprisoned, pleading that she does not know the associate arrested with her, and then she is executed.
The film shows the difficulties of Hong Kong surviving during the Japanese occupation, the dangers, the streets, the shops and suppliers, the lack of food, even a wedding continues in this atmosphere.
The film shows the activities of the outlaw rebel, his personality, his defying the Japanese by turning up at a meeting and causing some mayhem.
The film also shows the experiences of the young man who has gone to work with the Japanese, his bonding through poetry with the Japanese chief, yet his getting information, passing notes to secretaries who can get the information out, maps for targeting for bombing. Eventually, his role is discovered, his chief slashing him in the legs with his sword but the man defiant and allowed to go.
This is an opportunity to see resistance in action, a reminder of the Japanese occupation and its effects – and the long Chinese memory.
