16/39
Chronology
A Chinese woman lives a quiet life for herself, celebrating the prosperous Belle Epoque with song and dance. The female protagonist does not have a single line of dialogue in the film. A meditation on love and the passage of time; a woman searches for her lost lover in the ruins of a deconstructed city and in her own shattered memory, the Three Gorges Dam takes over cities as time swallows people, women sing and dance in joy and sorrow, and dreams surface and sink. . Life changes and we often don’t notice. Using mostly b-roll and previous films, Janke intertwines her brain and imagination. While I wish the material was fresh and made with a coherent story in mind, I can’t deny that Janke has a magical and captivating touch in everything she does, even in her wanderings. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.