LAAPFF 2023 SPECIAL: THIS TIME
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF)
is an annual film festival celebrating Native Hawaiian, Pasifika, Indigenous voices. and artist across the Asian American and Asian Diaspora through narrative film, shorts, animation, panels,and more.
This is one of the many films that premiered at this years festival.
THIS TIME [synopsis]:
Long lost high school sweethearts, Laela and Colin, unexpectedly reunite in Los Angeles 23 years after being separated during the 1998 riots in Jakarta, where they were torn apart without notice, unable to say goodbye, and flown away to different countries.
When they see one another again, the temptation to reconnect with a kindred spirit is irresistible despite Laela’s looming deadline and Colin’s impending move to Pennsylvania.
As the star-crossed lovers examine the choices that led them down their separate paths and bacK again, Laela and Colin must decide if they’re still in love or just nostalgic for the past.
Romance movies are not a common entry in the annual LA Asian Film Festival. So when one does make an appearance, it must be experienced.
This is a love story set in Los Angeles-esque areas. The film takes creative liberties with creating unique places for the main characters to reminisce about the past. Although their initial meeting is an actual location called Videotheque. At this video rental of modern lenses of the past, the two separated flames meet again decades later.
Laela (played by Leila Perry) and Colin (played by Ken Kirby) were high school sweethearts before the riots in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1998 ripped them apart to different parts of the world. For the next 23 years, they lived and experienced completely different lives. Those different paths lead them to Videotheque and the beginning of a long and sexually charged day of catch up. Throughout the day, they both find various excuses to share the same space as they have decades of memories to share. As they share laughs and memories , both actively ignore the dredging up of long buried emotions
The drama is not only within the charged spaces of silent glances but also with the incessant creeping of reality threatening to disrupt their love bubble. Of all days to reunite, it’s on the last day of Colin’s stay in Los Angeles as he packs up to move to the East Coast.
Over the packing of boxes and watching home movies, it’s a day of weighted possibilities. Each hour thins the line of what they should or should not do. Both are experiencing heavy waves of emotions but are they the same type of feelings? Each person carefully toeing away from acknowledging what will happen the next day. With each minute they reconnect, the physical distance between them shortens and the inevitable outcome is just on the brink. It’s a very long tease of what will will happen between them.
To help keep the tension of “will they or won’t they?” strong, the movie is heavy in dialogue and subtle gestures. As they meander through the last of Colin’s belonging’s, the discovery of an old camcorder brings those long buried emotions right into their faces. It’s would be impossible to forget the feelings of what you felt then while watching a video of yourself. It would definitely memories of what was felt and hoped for then.
There is a meaningful past shared between them that was ripped apart and has not found any closure. Can either of them say they have moved on? Have they dealt lingering hopes and dreams? It’s one thing when it’s closure from a breakup. It’s another creature of pain when it’s closure needed to move from a relationship that had such immense potential for a future together only to be taken away due to outside forces. It’s that “what dould have been…” thoughts that may haunt them Both have grown and experienced things at different rates and they are definitely not the same people they were once before.
What they share in past, they also in present and future. They know what it feels like to be forced to grow up in a country not your own or to adapt to a new way of life. Their identity is forged from unexpected territories. They both carry doubt and uncertainty about who they are and what they want to do.
This Time is a romance movie reflective of the Asian American in Los Angeles. The internal debates of what makes us the Asian that we are while living out experiences are completely unique to an LA native. No matter where they came from, all of LA is united in sharing the love of food. Food not just nourishes the body but it can rekindle memories or create new ones. So even though Laela and Ben have differing wavelengths, they can at least bask in the power of the past over a plate of Thai food.
Without giving away any film spoilers, the movie does bring up an interesting debate from what Laela and Colin decide. It’s a debate of boundaries and what is acceptable behavior between lovers. When it comes to reuniting with your past love, how easy it to let go of these restrictive barriers? Especially when you’re not sure if you will see them again? Is it worth it to revisit the past when the present is just as or more valuable?
This Time is currently making the circuit around film festivals. To see if it will be coming to a city near you check out the Official website: This Time — Sebastien Tobler
