So Long, My Son (2019)
This long epic 3 hour drama shows how a single tragedy can form an entire lifespan for several people. A Chinese couple loses their son in a drowning accident and with the “one child”-policy of China, they have an extra hard time dealing with that loss. The films spans at least two decades with lots of time jumps back and forth, giving - a somewhat jumbled but none the less coherent in the end - depiction of how they constantly blame themselves, how their close friends are also weighted down by guilt and the difficulty in accepting mistakes as a parent.
The 3 hour runtime didn’t really feel justified in the same way as something like Yi Yi and I admit there were parts that almost put me to sleep. However, the final 20 minutes redeems the film as a whole and elevates all the previous hours.
Rating: 4