(SCMP) While she doesn’t share the stylistic flair that has established Wong Kar-wai and Johnnie To Kei-fung as Hong Kong’s best known auteurs, there’s no denying Ann Hui On-wah’s stamp. With the fact-based drama Our Time Will Come, she adds her signature humanistic sensibility to an espionage thriller set in occupied Hong Kong during the second world war.
Zhou Xun plays Lan, a teacher who struggles to maintain a stable living with her mother (Deanie Ip Tak-han) during the Japanese occupation. After breaking up with her boyfriend (Wallace Huo Chien-hwa) amid the uncertainties of war, however, Lan becomes a coincidental participant in a guerrilla mission to evacuate Chinese intellectuals – including her tenant, the writer Mao Tun (Guo Tao) – from Hong Kong.
What follows is a sometimes thrilling, often relaxed snapshot of wartime Hong Kong, as Lan joins the local resistance group captained by a mythical assassin, Blackie (Eddie Peng Yu-yan), and carries out delivery duties – while going about her everyday life. The best intrigue – and offbeat humour – frequently stems from the chasm between the fatal reality of war and the characters’ resolutely ordinary way of life.
Before the last act turns into a poignant tale of sacrifice, Hui makes the most of her cast – boasting a notable number of Hong Kong Film Awards winners – to fashion an unapologetically human drama. Ip again impresses with her selfless role, while Zhou anchors a great scene that encapsulates the conscience of Hui’s vision, deliberating the deadly consequences of her action in near-unbearable silence.
Our Time Will Come opens on July 6
Source: South China Morning Post by Edmund Lee