Not All Wounds
First-timer Nick Cheuk keeps the Hong Kong drama ball rolling with the year’s most important film, if not its most enjoyable.
Time Still Turns The Pages
Director: Nick Cheuk • Writer: Nick Cheuk
Starring: Lo Chun-yip, Sean Wong, Ronald Cheng, Rosa Maria Velasco, Hanna Chan, Henick Chou, Rachel Leung
Hong Kong • 1hr 35mins
Opens Hong Kong November 16 • IIB
Grade: A-
Nick Cheuk Yik-him’s Time Still Turns The Pages | 年少日記 isn’t exactly a film that you enjoy. It’s not a date night movie. And though you could lump it in with the recent cluster of FFFI-friendly social dramas that have hit screens, it stands head and shoulders above most of them. The policy-mandated inward focus from Hong Kong cinema these days means there are a lot of filmmakers dissecting the world they know and turning a garish spotlight on its often ugly landscape. Last week Lawrence Kan reminded everyone of the abuses that can erupt in the city’s under-regulated care homes in In Broad Daylight. This week Cheuk (who co-wrote Wilson Yip Wai-shun’s Paradox) dons three hats (he’s also editor) for a sombre, sensitive drama drawn from the Mike Leigh school of unfettered urban filmmaking (Happy-Go-Lucky) for an exploration of juvenile suicide, depression, the inability to point to an easy source for both, misguided Hong Kong parenting, misguided Hong Kong schooling, the lasting impact of trauma and how they’re all wound together. It’s heavy going.
But it’s also remarkably sure-handed storytelling from Cheuk, no surprise given the deeply personal inspiration for the film (a classmate committed suicide over a decade ago, albeit a much older one). From the opening frames we catch ourselves making assumptions about middle school teacher Mr Cheng (Lo Chun-yip, No.1 Chung Ying Street), his youth and his family. When he finds an unsigned note that appears to suggest an imminent suicide it prompts, first, the school brass to consider what to do, and second, Cheng to see if he can find the letter-writer himself. It also forces him to recall how his brother took his took his own life many years before, and how that moment has left an indelible mark.
As kids, Eli and his younger brother Alan (Golden Horse nominee Sean Wong Tsz-lok and Curtis Ho Pak-lim) were put on very different paths by their parents, big shot lawyer Cheng Ji-hung (Ronald Cheng Chung-kei, Chilli Laugh Story) and tai-tai Heidi (Rosa Maria Velasco, Everyphone Everywhere). Their marriage borders on abusive, it’s definitely toxic, and Ji-hung’s idea of child-rearing is to coddle the straight-A student and future concert pianist Alan and belittle, ignore, or smack the less academically gifted Eli, who nonetheless wants to be a teacher. Of course, the suicide completely destroys what little exists of the family bond.
The events of the past rear their ugly head when Cheng’s wife, Sherry (Hanna Chan Hon-na, Limbo) gets pregnant and his lack of enthusiasm drives a wedge between them. The spectre of turning into his demanding father terrifies Cheng enough to sabotage his marriage. By the same token, it compels him to stick his neck out with his students, and let them know someone will listen to them – something no one offered when he was a kid. He’s particularly anxious about one boy, Vincent (Henick Chou, A Light Never Goes Out), who Cheng thinks is most likely to have written the note. The events of the past also press down on Cheng when he reluctantly visits his dying father in the hospital. Blame, recrimination, and forgiveness are thick in the room, though none is ever expressly recognised.
Time Still Turns The Pages is a slight film; unfussy in production and unencumbered by too much plot. Cheuk takes his time weaving all the various threads together and connecting the various dots, but never lets the material (not exactly “easy”) get away from him – or the characters. But he does insert a couple of fake-outs that are less about narrative excitement, less twists, as they are about forcing us to reconsider what we think we know about suicide, depression, trauma, about what those look like to outsiders and how they are very, very real even when they’re not present. He’s blessed with a strong cast, including 11-year-old Wong and KaiFong favourite Rachel Leung Yung-ting in a bit part, and Cheng, best known for comedy as Ji-hung. Cheng’s casting immediately brings us closer to Ji-hung, and ironically it humanises him. If Ji-hung were simply human garbage, Time Still Turns The Pages would lose a lot of its power, but Cheng makes Ji-hung a true believer in his own decisions. He honestly thinks he’s doing what’s best for his boys. He’s wrong, of course, but he’s more norm than outlier, and it’s that unchallenged acceptance of his choices that makes them so dire. Though they’re distinct in subject matter and Leigh allows space for levity, Cheuk shares Leigh’s focus on stunted communication as a fly in the relationship ointments of his characters: the Chengs don’t talk. Cheuk has no answers; he’s not trying to solve society’s ills. He’s just trying to make us all acknowledge people like the Chengs – all of them – exist. Another one of 2023’s local best. — DEK