“An Impossibly Small Object” Captures the Moment
Director：David Verbeek
Cast：David Verbeek、Lucia、Lisa Lu
Viola's Rating：6.2
Have
you ever experienced culture shock? How often do you travel? What do you think
about “time”? When’s the last time you had to say goodbye to someone that you
might not see each other again? Where do you consider as home? All these
philosophical questions were asked in Netherlander Director David Verbeek’s latest
feature film “An Impossibly Small Object”
First
shown at Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival in Taiwan, “An Impossibly Small
Object” is a fantasy drama, which can only be seen in Netherlands and Taiwan.
Documentary-like, it tells the story of a photographer, Verbeek himself, takes
a photo of a little girl on some dark streets in Taipei at night when he first
visited. After this trip, his own memory of childhood starts to come back to
him more and more and becomes closely intertwined with the identity of the girl.
While looking at the pictures he took, he starts to project his childhood onto
hers. The film is narrated meditatively in 3 parts; Taipei, on an
intercontinental flight and in Amsterdam.
On
the poster is a little girl with a kite in hand, and behind her is a puppet.
Three things seem unrelated in some way, but their correlations and symbols in “An
Impossibly Small Object” are strong. When asked “why pick kite and puppet”,
Director Verbeek said that they were the objects he saw and took picture of on
his first trip to Taiwan.
Not
only using kite as future and puppets as fear, Director Verbeek also made good
use of light in “An Impossibly Small Object”. Throughout the flock, artificial
and natural light is everywhere, and each propels the plot in different ways. When
it comes to light, the crew is fastidious about lighting as well. Aside from
the concept and stereotype that Asia is bright and reddish, “An Impossibly
Small Object” is presented in a bluish and cold hue, giving the ambiance that
something dormant is going to happen.
Besides
lighting, the score of “An Impossibly Small Object” is also trying to create
that atmosphere. However, by and large, as a fantasy motion picture, the score
is a little bit too intimidating that the audience would think they’re watching
horrors.
One
minor disadvantage is that young actor and actress’ lines aren’t as natural.
Not saying that their acting skills aren’t good enough, but it might be as a
result of Director Verbeek’s Mandarin ability so that some of their language
usages aren’t usually heard in daily conversations.
Director
Verbeek believes that the story of Xiao Han and her best friend, Hao Hao,
awakens moviegoers’ childhood memories, and to him, a photographer, all these
good stories which are captured in pictures stay there forever. Not a movie
amazes you, but a good look to Taipei from a foreigner’s eyes and his camera.
Picture Credit: IMDb
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