Wood and Water (2021, Jonas Bak) (Patreon)

60/100

Of little interest to me for its first 25 or so minutes, which observe a sixtyish German retiree as she vacations with her adult daughter, putters around the house, appears vaguely uncertain about what value her life now has. Standard bland alienation. People keep mentioning her son who lives abroad, though, often while watching televised protests, and when the film made an abrupt swerve (at precisely my standard W/O point!) into urban abstraction—fixating on the overhead lights of a long tunnel, then unexpectedly emerging into Hong Kong's neon nightscape—I decided to stick around and see where this first-timer was headed. Somewhere magical, it briefly appeared: Unable to get into her son's apartment until morning (he's out of town for several days; the movie ends before he returns), the woman reluctantly takes a shared room at a hostel, where she's engaged in conversation by the barely-visible younger woman in the bunk above her; nothing significant gets said, but there's nonetheless a lovely, hushed energy to this random encounter, supplemented by Bak's attention to the play of light through the window as reflected on the room's walls. Subsequent daylight scenes are less oddly thrilling but maintain the serendipitous vibe, with footage of real-life protests getting just the right (minimal) emphasis relative to our heroine's low-key journey of self-discovery via strangers in a strange land. I do wish that Bak hadn't cast his own mother in the lead role, as she lacks whatever ineffable quality it is that can make a non-professional fascinating to watch even when (s)he's doing very little. And the initial stretch remains needlessly dull, even in hindsight, while the ending tries for crane-/drone-shot catharsis and doesn't really get there. These days, though, being caught off guard by one of ND/NF's selections—enough so that I feel compelled to keep going despite my misgivings—feels like a victory.

Bonus "fun" fact: This may or may not be the first film I've seen that's set during the current pandemic. I assumed it was 2019 for a while, but a lot of protesters are wearing masks, and the protagonist even buys and tries on a mask herself at one point (but then never dons it again). On the other hand, mask-wearing was already quite common in Asia, I believe. Unclear.