ONE SECOND

China, 2020, 102 minutes, Colour.

Zhang Yi, Haocun Liu, Wei Fan.

Directed by Zhang Yimou.

Audiences were ready to see One Second at the 2019 Berlinale but the film was withdrawn four days before screening, allegedly post-production problems, which most understood as some form of censorship and disagreement with the contents of the film and/or its impact. It was eventually released in China in 2020.

This story of censorship is surprising since the film was cowritten and directed by veteran and acclaimed director, Zhang Yimou (Chief Director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics). He began directing films at age 37 in 1988 with Red Sorghum, making an impact with his drama, history, photographic beauty. This continued during the 1990s, Raise the Red Lantern, Qui Ju, To Live. After the impact of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which he admired, he made a great number of spectacular and colourful historical martial arts epics. During the 2010s, he has tackled a variety of themes and styles.

However, in 1999-2000, he made two quietly domestic but very moving smaller films, Not One Less and The Road Home. For this reviewer, they were journeys into China, quieter and emotional journeys, meeting the people, familiar dilemmas and crises. One Second is very much in this vein and all the more welcome for it.

The setting is 1975, the impact of the Cultural Revolution. It is a story of cinema, travelling movie reels to remote rural towns, newsreels and propaganda films like the 1964 Heroic Sons and Daughters, sections of which we see, the audience rapt, having seen the films before, but singing along with the patriotic songs. Zhang Yimou has noted the “collective experience” of these decades (noting that present generations are moving away to more individual experiences).

In many ways, the plot is small. We first see a ragged man walking through the sand dunes (one commentator wryly noting that this is the most desert and sand dunes we see this side of Arrakis!). The individual is so small against the dunes. Who is he? It takes some time for us to find out as he wanders the desert, arriving in the town, too late to see the movie, encountering an orphan girl who steals a reel, pursuing her, recovering the reel and then losing it. So, not only who is he, but what is so important about the reel?

We have some sympathy for the man wandering the desert, clashing with the girl, recovering and losing the reel, getting lifts in trucks, eager to drink from the local tap, hungrily devouring noodles, and people regarding him are suspicious.

So, here we are, in a remote town, the people gathering, eager to watch the film – but a long episode, where a reel has fallen off the back of the cart and lies tangled in dust on the road. The stranger is desperate. The proud local projectionist takes charge and a huge cleaning, communal effort, follows.

And then we discover what the One Second is, a glimpse of film that the stranger eagerly wants to see, desperately wants. And we learn who is one, what his experience has been, what the sequence contains – pathos for him, pathos for us, the audience.

And there is more pathos when we learn who the orphan is, her studious little brother, the custom of making lampshades from film strips and the reason for her stealing the reel. Some bonding between the stranger and the orphan, after some fights, physical, some desperation on his part, some hurt on her part for her brother on hers.

And, then, the film seems to end sadly out there in the dunes. But, in fact, there is an epilogue, two years later, the Cultural Revolution over, prisoners freed, children better clothed and educated, and the stranger and the orphan meeting again, returning to the dunes, memories of sadness but, could we hope, a better future?

1. The films of the director over many decades, Chinese history, Chinese mythologies, spectacle, and intimate domestic dramas? The place of One Second?
2. The setting, Chinese communes and units, the small towns, the populations, comparatively poor, Socialism, work, community gatherings, film screenings, newsreels, propaganda? The Communist revolution? Chairman Mau? His picture, his principles?
3. The period, 1975, the Cultural Revolution, strict socialism, in the aftermath of Chairman Mao, rules and regulations, security guards? The end of the film, a change of regime, prisoners being released, more freedom of movement?
4. The towns in the desert? The widescreen visuals of the desert, sands, the continuous dunes, individuals so small within these vast landscapes? The visual background for the film, the action sequences in the desert? The musical score?
5. The man, seen alone in the desert, trudging through, up and down the dunes, eventually getting to the town, audiences wondering who he was, his purpose, his appearance, the drab uniform, cap? His age? Dishevelled? Finding the hall for the movies? The end of the screening? The reels, in the bag on the bike? Seeing the orphan, her taking the reel, his pursuit of her, the struggles? Coming back, the bike gone?
6. The story of the film reel? The range of adventures? The fight with the girl, then realising she was a girl? Taking the reel, trudging to the next town for the screening? Her following him, the bone and her hitting him? Retrieving the reel? His being picked up by the truck, the conversation, seeing the girl, stopping, in the car, her spinning the story about her father, the suspicions of the driver, trying to get the reel, his getting out of the truck because of the cyclist with the film? The cyclist, difficulties with the bike, riding past, and the man stranded?
7. Arriving in the town, getting something to eat, seeing the girl, the interactions in the restaurant, the projectionist, his coming to intervene, the various stories, his suspicions? And the missing reel?
8. The people gathering, the eagerness to see the film, the Heroic Sons and Daughters, their having seen the film many times, joining in the singing of the patriotic songs? The projectionist’s son, the later explanation of his drinking the cleaning fluid and having brain damage, helping the cyclist, with the reels of films, falling of the truck, tangling? The crisis?
9. The emerging of the reason for the man’s journey, the letter, the story of his daughter being seen in the film? His desperation to see it? And the revelation that he was a prisoner, for six years, his wife divorcing him, his daughter working in the factories, the information that she could be seen in the film?
10. The revelation of the title of the film, the one second in which the man could see his daughter?
11. The response of the projectionist, the town people, salvaging the film, all the volunteers, the washing of the film, the drying and the fans, the man helping with tangling, the projectionist winding the film?
12. The man, the interactions with the orphan, the clashes, the realisation that her story was true, seeing her little brother, his reading, wanting some of the film to make a lampshade, her stealing some of the introductory material, the suspicions of the projectionist? (And the elaborate film lampshade the projectionist had?)
13. The story of the bullying of the brother, the man offering to defend, the girl pointing out the group, their bullying tactics, the fight in the hall, bashing the man?
14. The man desperate, looking for the girl, looking for the reel of film, going to her house, searching, frightening the boy?
15. The irony that she had delivered the film, his watching the film, the audience and the patriotic film, his discovering the girl outside, the truth, her demanding an apology?
16. His wanting to see the scene over and over again, the projectionist providing a loop, his sitting in the hall, watching?
17. The projectionist, with the security, their coming to get the man, bashing the girl, bashing the man, taking him away? The projectionist giving him the film frames with his daughter? In the dunes, their taking the frames, throwing them away? The girl, following, finding the wrapping and thinking that that was what was lost?
18. This sequence as a sad ending for the film?
19. The epilogue, two years later, change of government policy, the man being freed, going back to the village, looking for the girl? Her changing appearance? Her finding the page she had saved, neatly folded, giving it to the man, the going out into the dunes, unable to find the frames? Pathos? The future?