Directed by Ann Hui ("A Simple Life," "The Postmodern Life of My Aunt"), "Our Time Will Come" often seems to concern the sudden and unexpected ways that politics define the every-day lives of Communist-sympathizing citizens, like reserved teacher Lan Fong (Zhou Xun) and her equally demure mother (Deanie Ip). Yes, Fong and her daughter are portrayed admiringly by Hui and screenwriter Kei-ping Ho for their commitment to fighting imperialism at home. But almost every interaction these characters make is undercut by necessity or skepticism. Resources are scarce, and allegiances are routinely tested because everything in 1942 is political, and therefore impersonal after a point. This is an unsentimental war movie about characters who are forced to consider and live with the consequences of their actions.
"Our Time Will Come" begins as a spy thriller of sorts. The Fongs are, unbeknownst to them, leasing an apartment to a subversive writer who goes by the pen name of Mao Tun (Guo Tao). They only learn of their tenant's double life on the day that Chinese guerillas aid Mao in fleeing the country. We get vital context that the Fongs don't, like scenes where the guerillas plot a mass evacuation of dissident Chinese intellectuals, and bully a greedy local bandit into letting them pass through his territory.
But the war's influence on the Fongs' lives is not as comprehensible or neat. Mrs. Fong finds a dead Japanese spy's body on her front door. Lan's first-hand knowledge of the Communists comes from her boyfriend Gam-wing (Wallace Huo), a Communist guerrilla who (unsuccessfully) proposes marriage, and then flees on a mission. Lan is suspicious of her lover, and asks him why he wants to be engaged to her if he's leaving. Eventually Lan joins Gam-wing in fighting the Japanese by spreading propaganda and looking after Communist sympathizers. And even Mrs. Fong, after vocally protesting to her daughter, helps her neighbors and offers to share her food with her daughter's colleagues.
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