The precarious position of technical interns in Japan is examined in Half Time, ZHANG Yaoyuan’s unsentimental follow-up film to his behind-the-show-biz-scenes documentary On Stage (2021, OAFF2022).

For Half Time, ZHANG applies a realist aesthetic to focus on the hardship of a Chinese technical intern named Qingyang. His fortunes had already been trending downwards before he reached Japan. Now, at 39 and with a kid to support in China, debts to pay off, a lack of Japanese language proficiency, and despicable brokers guiding him, he labours under a lot of stress and yet tries his best to secure a job, any job, in a series of humiliating interviews orchestrated by people keen to exploit him. Desperation, degradation, and discrimination build up as a final interview approaches and his patience runs out… [Jason MAHER]