Friday One Sheet: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME

Today we have a handsome set of pastoral pastiche from the land of Chinese blockbusters. Derek Yee's In Search of Lost Time may have nothing to do with Proust, but it has plenty to do with one of many social crises of the 1950s. At the time, there were so many orphaned children that the government took several thousand children and 'embedded' them with the herders and farmers of Inner Mongolia.

Designer Xin Yi Lian has done a lot of character-poster work for Chinese blockbusters, from Detective vs. Sleuths to The Chinese Pilot to The Battle of Lake Chang-Jin. Here, the tone of the film is set with a nostalgic collection of character images matched to beautiful, bucolic, landscapes.

The text template fits all of the images cleanly, its English-language text cursive title at a swooshy angle against the unfussy Chinese text. The visual focus remains on a sturdy collection of young people purposely moving forward with their labour. Given the period, time, and place, you can make of that what you will. I have zero doubts that the film will fill its large canvas.