Leeds Review: The Girl Who Stole Time is a love letter to cinema (and a cinematic letter to love)

To be in love is to never have enough time.

That's the core message I took away from The Girl Who Stole Time, the dazzling fantasy adventure from directors Ao Yu and Tienan Zhou. But the film also arguably says the opposite, that getting to spend any amount of time with the person you love is precious, and enough in its own way. The memories will live on in you, treasured keepsakes you can cling to and look back on as the years go by, even if your loved one is long gone. Both things can be true. Maybe both must be true to fully encompass the indelibility of love, the impossibility of living in a world where someone can break you open and mend you back together, where aging and death are inevitable.

I have to say I wasn't fully prepared for the emotional journey this movie took me on. I've written before about my dread of aging. I hate how quickly time slips away, how much of my life is behind me (even knowing that I likely have just as much, and likely more, ahead of me). When I see those I love getting older, losing their faculties, slowing down, it makes me think about how that awaits me, too, how someday I'll be seen through unkinder eyes by the world. I'll be a person who used to be rather than a person who is. Time is cruel that way, as is the world.

So I probably shouldn't have been surprised by how hard The Girl Who Stole Time hit me, but then again, it's a movie that kind of pulls a trick on you, genre-wise. Most of the movie is this fantastical, action-packed adventure, and that part of the movie is extremely fun, lively, and exciting. But in its final act, it cracks open and reveals that, at its core, this is actually all about the romance at its core. Whether you read that romance as tragic or not probably says a lot about your worldview, or at least your view on love. Maybe all romances are tragic because they all must end. Or maybe none of them are because at least they happened. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I agree with that.

I guess it's all relative.

Qian Xiao is a young woman who washed up on a far-flung island three years ago with no memory of her life before. She's plucky and adventurous, and wants to go to the city, where time moves faster than on her sluggishly-paced new home. In the meantime, she enjoys the movies her caretaker, a kindly old man, shows to the island's residents, and wishes her life more closely resembled those cinematic wonders. Maybe more than any character I've ever seen, Qian Xiao has a case of so-called "main character syndrome." And honestly, she deserves. She's so funny and excitable and adorable. Not only does she want to be a heroine in an epic story; I wanted her to be one, too. 

After she (somewhat accidentally) stows away on a ship, she ends up in the city, and in possession of a mystical golden disc that allows her to freeze time. She senses that it might have even more time-altering powers, but those remain untapped for the moment. This disc, as you might guess, is a very hot commodity. The treacherous crime boss Mr. Zuo is after it for his own reasons (more interesting ones than a mere power-grab, thankfully), and one of his henchman, the dreamy Seventeen, is eager to turn over the artifact to secure his freedom from his life of crime. 

Seventeen has OCD. He likes everything orderly, symmetrical, aligned. So when his path collides with Qian Xiao, who's a bit of a random mess, it's a delight to behold. They are such a mis-match, but decide to work together. Qian Xiao wants to have her cinematic day of adventure, so Seventeen agrees to let her wield the medallion for a day, as long as she stays be his side. So begins an adventure through the city, living it up, (actually) making a movie, and *swoon* falling in love.

I am something of a sucker for time-manipulation movies. A well-done time-loop is a delight. Time-travel romances, perhaps even more so. The Girl Who Stole Time isn't either of those, though it tends more toward the latter. Rather, it feels more like a time-manipulating superhero romance. For her part, Qian Xiao sees her foray into cinema as a martial arts/superhero movie, a charming choice for this 1930s set story. Beyond all the fantastical and romantic trappings, this is also a very blatant love letter to cinema, which also always scores points for me.

And I love how, in a movie like this, somewhat generic or trope-y lines suddenly take on such pregnant meaning. A character wishing for more time, or that a moment could go on forever, or that they wish they had met sooner...those all hit so much harder in a movie where it feels like those wishes could possibly come true, if only the powers that be allow everything to align just right.

And this is a movie where it feels like everything does align just right. While I was very much into it the whole time, bopping along with the adventure, enjoying the various action set-pieces and introductions of new characters, when the film takes its big swing toward the end of the final act, and finally pivots into emotional and surprising territory, I really felt like it had me in the palm of its hand, right where it wanted me. I was putty in its hands, blubbering, a mess, sobbing, bawling. As the credits rolled, I knew I needed to give my husband a big hug and tearfully try to explain what this movie said, and how it said it. I knew this was a movie I would carry with me forever.

And while I know the time I have with my husband will never be enough -- we could live a thousand years and I'd still long for one more day with him -- this movie also made me reflect on how lucky I am to have him at all. I'm lucky I met him pretty young. I was 26 when we went on our first date. We've been together for almost a decade, and have so many more ahead of us. And when the credits roll on this life, I'll be so glad to have lived the majority of it with him by my side, and with movies like this popping up along the way to remind me of how lucky I am, and how grateful I should be to live a life so full of love.

The Girl Who Stole Time plays again at the Leeds International Film Festival on November 9.