Face à la nuit

The movie is a string of three short films very cleverly put together. In the first one we meet an obsessed and violent man, and the next two show us how he got to be the bad person that he is. Eras change, technology changes, seasons change, actors change, the style of cinematography changes, but some things are constant throughout the movie: acting is great, smoking is super hot, and the system is as corrupt as ever. It gets a bit melodramatic towards the end, but this is a movie with great atmosphere, and it keeps your brain busy well after the credits have rolled.

In a Chinese city of the future, where happiness is the creed and suicide a secular sin, a pensioner jumps to his death from a tall building. What follows are 3 episodes from his life, told in reverse order. There is the last day of his life, his time as a police officer, and his time as a wayward youth. Each earlier-in-life episode explains his actions later in life. This is interesting storytelling, slightly marred for me by not realizing that there were only 3 main time periods, and therefore trying unnecessarily to figure out if we had moved to an earlier time. From the director Q+A at the Toronto International Film Festival, the English title is inspired by the book Country of Last Things, while the Chinese title is Happiness City (Ironically, I believe).

The movie is divided into 3 parts detailing 3 different times in the character's life, beginning with old age, then middle age, and finally teen age. The problem is that rather than being one cohesive whole, each part feels too separate, like standalone mini-movies. His teenage part, especially, feels pointless and completely removed from the other two. The story would not lose anything if this part was removed. And being half an hour long, that's an unacceptable waste of the viewer's time.

The filmography, acting, etc. Are all very good, but none of that can make up for a story told badly. The script is also rather sparse, with the main character speaking very very little throughout the whole movie, and way too many things being poorly explained as a result. It's difficult to understand what's going on or the character's motivations at times.

A series of events in a man's life, over decades, leads to a fateful night.

The film takes place in regressive chronology, where we see the final acts of the main character and then we regress to key points in his life, which give us the reasons that lead him to do what he does.

We start in a distant future, in terms of technology (a kind of Blade Runner), which I did not particularly liked, given the mood that the film pretends to have, at least in my opinion, and it's only acceptable by a small detail that later on (that is, in the past) is explained to the audience.

There's strange moments and scenes, and nobody can really tell why they happened, or happened that way, at least.

The best part is the cinematography, the grain throughout the film is beautiful (it was shot in 35mm) and creates an attractive noir atmosphere.

Think of Black Mirror Chinese version. Three short stories, each one depicting human flaws that's common among most of us. So well scripted and portrayed, don't miss this one if you have a chance to see it. Trust me, you'll come away moved.