100 Sunset, the feature debut by promising filmmaker Kunsan Kyirong, is a movie I want to love more than I do.
For one, director Kyirong has an impeccable understanding of time and place. Every moment is full of depth and texture, as if she's capturing something real and immediate instead of a rehearsed film set. In her hands, Toronto reveals a completely different side of itself, one that is vibrant and beautiful in its own way, unlike anything we've seen before.
But Kyirong hasn't found a story to match the mood, and in its current form, 100 Sunset is simply too long for what it is. There are singular moments that stand out; complex wholes that sing and invite the viewer to experience a community that rarely, if ever, gets a chance to be seen like this. But they're lost in an otherwise meandering and slow narrative that would be more effective with 30 minutes cut from the runtime.
The story, such as it is, follows Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel), a young, taciturn woman who has turned her entire being inward. As the community around her embraces tradition and insular mechanics to exist, Kunsel wants to reach out into Canada, which still seems far away, even as it spreads all around her.
That push and pull of tradition and something new tear at her, and in response she escapes behind a digital camera and petty thievery. They're contradictions in behavior; attempts to connect while pushing others away.
When Kunsel meets the outspoken and acerbic Passang (Sonam Choekyi), she sees in her an older sister of sorts, even as Passang struggles with her own cage that Kunsel can't quite understand.
There's a lot of setup in Kyirong's story, and it takes up most of the film before it can even get going. We learn about the locations, the people, and the small customs they've built together in an apartment complex that should be only a starter home for many, but has turned into the first and last place they stay in this new country.
Like Aki Kaurismäki or Jim Jarmusch, Kyirong has an eye for humanist details. Her characters appear thinly drawn on the surface, but it's in the little ticks that they reveal themselves to those paying attention. The best scenes are the ones where we just sit back and watch how an evening unfolds, or how unspoken bitterness courses underneath everyday conversation.
And yet, despite all this, 100 Sunset never moves strongly enough to go anywhere. Part of that is deliberate to capture the unhurried and unbroken pace of a lifestyle trapped in an endless apartment complex. But we, as an audience, can learn all of that from less. In its present state, by the time we get to anything resembling a resolution, it's so late into the telling that all emotional heft has gone out.
I think Kyirong is a talented filmmaker who announces her strengths clearly with this debut feature. Just the same, it also showcases where the weaknesses lie, too. With a tigther edit and stronger focus, I think she will make something truly special one day. This isn't it, but it's a promising and often captivating start.
