A film made for a foreign audience ignorant of Chinese history and recent cinematography. If you have seen Chinese movies before, don't bother watching this one. If you have never seen any, switch to Zhang's earliest ones. If you want rural melancholy, see Bi Gan's Kaili Blues or Antonioni's Chung Kuo - Cine instead.
The only part that I really liked about the film is the two lead characters, who go through a vast transformation. A villain becomes a hero and back many times. Of course, it is a characteristic of Chinese cinema that there are no distinctly good or bad characters. This, at its best, leads to a very artistic and chill vibe. In One Second, though, it is more a token of Zhang avoiding the official red lines set to the topic of Chairman Mao's years of turmoil. The village boys are real villains who do nasty things, but they get through with no pay. What is disturbing is that their violence is somewhat airbrushed away behind the frame. As if the director agreed to their acts. The result is an immensely politically correct and thus boring storyline, with an all too obvious tear-puller placed to the end.
The only part that I really liked about the film is the two lead characters, who go through a vast transformation. A villain becomes a hero and back many times. Of course, it is a characteristic of Chinese cinema that there are no distinctly good or bad characters. This, at its best, leads to a very artistic and chill vibe. In One Second, though, it is more a token of Zhang avoiding the official red lines set to the topic of Chairman Mao's years of turmoil. The village boys are real villains who do nasty things, but they get through with no pay. What is disturbing is that their violence is somewhat airbrushed away behind the frame. As if the director agreed to their acts. The result is an immensely politically correct and thus boring storyline, with an all too obvious tear-puller placed to the end.