In urban geography, there is a crucial distinction made between the concepts of Space and Place. The former, demarcated by tangible boundaries, is filled with memories and everything else immaterial to become something more: a place.
In Polen Ly’s cinematic world in Becoming Human (2025), this very concept of Place takes centre stage. Among the various landscapes captured with a larger-than-life gravity, we arrive first at an abandoned cinema, where Hai, a journalist visits to photograph the soon to be demolished space. There, he meets Thida, whose youthful appearance betrays her multigenerational legacy as the cinema’s spiritual guardian.
Ly’s slow filmmaking style is well-adapted to the subject matter. His long, droning shots do well to soak up these settings’ pasts and presents. There’s something about his portrayals of vast, liminal landscapes that strikes such awe and all the emotions Ly seeks to convey, where every shot feels imbued with intention. Still, he leaves space for viewers to project their own feelings and experiences, transforming these scenes into a sort of meditative experience.
Still, it was difficult for the film’s storyline to match up to the ambitious runtime. The plot started to fizzle off with no clear path to a meaningful resolution, while the audience was derailed to peripheral sceneries that did not achieve much other than a sense of inconsistency. With this, it became increasingly difficult to tell what Polen Ly was exactly trying to accomplish with the meandering plot.
I have a sensing that Becoming Human (2025) was too ambitious – not because of the microbudget, but perhaps the lack of directorial strength in pulling it all together. I felt that the characters were not sufficiently fleshed out for me to appreciate any character-driven sideplots, much less romance or interpersonal ones.
Nevertheless, this is not to discount the caliber of the message and ideas Becoming Human (2025) seeks to convey. Ly has a strong artistic vision that permeates through his screen and his visual storytelling is refreshingly poignant, which are all raw gifts that I’m positive will carry him to create even more beautiful films.
- j