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One Second (film)

2019 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ60686176 ↗
Source-derived summary

One Second (Chinese: 一秒钟) is a 2020 drama film directed by Zhang Yimou, about a man who escapes from a Laogai camp during the Cultural Revolution. The film is co-produced by China and Hong Kong, and based on the novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi, by author Geling Yan. Yan is not credited in the film, which has led to controversy.

Plot

In 1969, during China's Cultural Revolution, a man known only as "the fugitive" is sent to a remote labor reform camp in northwestern China after clashing with a rebel faction leader. His wife divorces him, and his daughter severs ties. In 1975, he learns that his 14-year-old daughter died in an accident while participating in a school labor activity, her efforts captured in Issue No. 22 of the News Bulletin. Desperate to see her one last time, he escapes the camp in hopes of catching the reel at a rural screening.

At the second farm division, an orphan named Liu and her younger brother struggle to survive after their mother dies and their father abandons them. In a bid to replace a burned lampshade made from film, Liu steals a reel of Heroic Sons and Daughters.

Editorial summary

“One Second (film)” enters the record as 2019 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Second, film and Chinese can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 1969, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2019. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Second, film and Chinese.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“One Second (film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Second, film and Chinese provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60686176. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1969 and 1975.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “One Second (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow One Second (film) primary sources, One Second (film) archive and Second research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “One Second (film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “One Second (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.