Review: Will Time Tell? (2006)

Directed by: Sue Healey | 12 minutes | short film | Actors: Shona Erskine, Ryuichi Fujimura, Makiko Izu, Mina Kawai, Yuka Kobayashi, Norikazu Maeda

“Will Time Tell?” Is a beautiful, but above all funny video made by the Australian Sue Healey. It is about a young woman who travels in a country unknown to her. The young woman in the short – “Will Time Tell?” Lasts about 12.5 minutes – has trouble keeping track of time, a fact when traveling. Days seem to be shorter at the destination and when you travel from A to B the journey always takes longer because boredom sets in. This is roughly the theme of this Australian / Japanese production.

The New Zealand-born choreographer uses clever tricks to depict this. For example, we see main character Shona Erskine, a talented dancer who can almost be seen as Sue Healey’s muse, standing still, while around her the world passes by at an enormously accelerated pace. Or we see her dancing furiously, while her surroundings remain calm.

Sue Healey has succeeded in bringing a lot of humor into the video. Just the contrast of Shona’s red jacket and short dress with the clothing of the Japanese group (consisting of four professional Butoh trained dancers) in which she finds herself is comical. The scene in which the group is fishing is also very amusing. Funny is that Shona is the only one who seems to be aware of the camera, she repeatedly looks with a roguish smile at her audience, which she does not know. Ben Walsh’s music fits very well with the images.

The film was shot in two weeks on HD video and Video 8 in Tokyo and Yokohama. “Will Time Tell?” Is part of a series of films, entitled “In Time”, that Sue Healey has shot on the theme of time. This series follows the series “Niche”, which deals with the theme of space. It is hoped that this talented Ozzie has not yet been filmed for the time being.