First feature of Choy Ji, “Borrowed Time” was executive produced by Stanley Kwan and features mostly non-professional actors, including Lin Dongping who plays the protagonist, in an overall intensely art-house movie.
Borrowed Time is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Soon-to-be married Mak Yuen-ting stumbles upon the actual story of her mother and father, Ka-fai, who had left them and Guangzhou for Hong Kong some 30 years before. It turns out that he had come to China for work, met her mother and lived with her for ten years, but he was actually already married in Hong Kong before coming. Yuen-ting, who suffers from frequent nightmares, decides to travel to Hong Kong to meet her father, but a meeting with an old acquaintance who had once given her a CD titled “Borrowed Time”, transforms her trip into something rather surrealistic.
First things first. The movie is gorgeous with Huang Shuli's cinematography definitely being among its biggest traits. The way the DP implements door and windows for frames, the panoramic shots, the long shots, and the close ups of both characters and Guanhzhou and Hong Kong are truly outstanding, with the fact that the artistry remains on this high level even despite the plethora of settings the story takes place in (fields, markets, apartments, even the forest) adds even more to the job done in the visuals of “Borrowed Time”. Lastly, that Lin Dongping ‘writes' quite well on the camera cements the overall prowess of the particular aspect.
Regarding the context, the road movie type of narrative, which frequently moves beyond place and reality, into time and fantasy, works quite well in terms of the overall art-house approach of the movie, also because the dramatic story keeps the whole thing grounded, not allowing it to become particularly self-indulgent. The secrets kept and the reasons for the father's doing also add a sense of intrigue, which is actually retained to the rather fitting ending. Even more interesting, however, is the metaphor deriving from the relationship of the two women with the men of the story and particularly the father, which, evidently but also quite smartly, mirrors the relationship between Hong Kong and China. This aspect actually moves beyond the metaphor, as the differences in mentality and the way the two groups treat and perceive each other becomes evident upon the protagonist's trip, as much as in the presentation of the two cities.
And talking about the protagonist, Lin Dongping as Yuen-ting gives a great performance, retaining a very realistic sense of measure throughout the movie, with the scenes in her nightmares and the ones with her mother being the apogee of her performance, which also applies to Pan Jie in the role of the latter.
Qin Yanan's editing results in an expectedly slow pace and an overall very fitting rhythm, although the transition between the two cities could have been handled a bit better. On the other hand, the economical 93 minutes of the duration are definitely a tick in the pros column, particularly in an era where all movies seem to last too long.
“Borrowed Time” is an excellent film, one that definitely deserves to be watched on the big screen, and one that will definitely appeal to all fans of art-house cinema.
