London Film Festival Day 2: Moonlight, A Monster Calls, Christine & More
6. Ten Years
A group of largely unknown Hong Kong filmmakers team up for this five-part anthology movie about the speculative future of their country over the next decade as China exerts an increasing amount of influence.
A hugely unexpected winner of this year's Best Film Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards due to its incredibly low budget of around $80,000 USD, Ten Years is handicapped by its rampant inconsistency but nevertheless packs a powerful visceral punch all the same.
Of the five shorts, three hit the mark with their bleak political satire and unexpected humour, while two fail to rise above watchably mediocre. Unfortunately, the two worst shorts are also rather on the long side, but at least they're spread evenly throughout the movie as the second and fourth shorts respectively.
It all adds up to an compelling, convincing, hilarious and frightening political statement (that the little guy suffers as usual), all the more important considering how aggressively the Chinese authorities attempted to censor the film upon release.
Rating: Though it can't help but struggle with its lesser stories and that clear shoestring budget, Ten Years still presents a unique dystopian vision that's difficult to shake. 6/10