NYAFF 2022 Review: ONE AND FOUR Evens The Odds With Solid Direction
Anyone out here in the West looking to familiarize themselves with actor and poet Jinpa can do so with a few possible selections, including leading Tibetan auteur Pema Tseden’s sixth feature, Jinpa, as well as Zhang Yang’s 2016 adventure drama, Soul On A String. Otherwise, audiences are currently welcome to embrace the actor’s latest role in a searing new Chinese-Tibetan western noir from Tseden’s son, debut filmmaker Jigme Trinley in the form of One And Four, a film that squarely reunites the star with Tseden who produced the pic for its local release last year.
The wintery Western noir is set in the late 1990s in the mountains where we meet Sanggye (Jinpa), a rural forest ranger whose desolate worklife is nothing short of dilapidated, he can’t sleep, and he’s currently wrestling with a hangover despite it being against the rules for him to drink on the job. The latter eventually gets pointed out to him in the moments following a brutish knock on the door, and a gun is pointed at him the second he opens it; The gun’s user happens to be a man who claims to be a Forestry Police officer, wounded from a deadly high-speed chase with an elusive poacher that’s escaped into the frosty wilderness.
With a blizzard coming in, time stands against Sanggye and the self-proclaimed officer as they must reconcile with each other in their efforts to survive the next twelve hours, all while measuring each other’s movements and motivations. Things take a turn with the appearance of Sanggye’s friend and neighbor, Kunbo, following a late evening visit one evening to Sanggye’s office with key information about his wife. The sudden existence of a missing sack containing antlers and a fox pelt, only envelops Kunbo into an impasse with the Forestry Policeman that ensues a search for the sack. The only question remains lies when a fourth person makes his entrance in an already dangerous situation, creating a Catch-22 where no one can be trusted and everyone is a suspect.
Such is what Trinley’s One And Four leaves off with in its packaging of a grisled, compelling survival drama wrapped in a mystery whodunit, with a script that paves the way for stunning cinematography and riveting moments of action pitting man against nature in more ways than one. The relationship between Sanggye and the Forestry Policeman is crucial to this endeavor, including when they first set out to investigate the officer’s crashsite and the two end up clashing over a wounded deer despite both being hungry. There’s a moment where they get lucky and share a rabbit they’ve hunted along the way which does bring some levity to the film’s often omnious mood.
© Mani Stone Pictures/Tsemdo
Jinpa hands audiences a performance that is nothing short of vulnerable and immersive in the role of a forest ranger who has more than his share of problems, as does the role of the officer played by Zhang Weng who does excellently in carrying on the film’s mystery. As such, you never really know what agendas are with these characters unless you have some strong instincts. Even if you do, the film’s procession of characters still tends to keep you on your toes on through the end when all is said and done and there’s only one man left standing.
Topped by Lv Songgye’s lensing and Ding Ke’s firey score, the action sequences especially compliment the film’s intensity throughout, from the road chase twenty minutes in, to the single gun battles in the woods used between flashbacks during the movie, the scuffle between Sanggye and the officer over the deer, and the climatic finale. Trinley’s freshman outing is a modest survival drama that fleshes out its best, with stimulating story, a strong cast, and a vision that speaks highly to Trinley’s directing caliber, all culminating a neo-Western that crackles and resonates with explosive and poignant results.
One And Four is screening this year for the New York Asian Film Festival.
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