A film review by Jamie Richardson

No matter where you live or your background, life and its many twists and foibles will at sometime pull you down to a depth of misery and despair.

In Lloyd Lee-Choi’s award winning live action short film SAME OLD the livelihood of a delivery driver is turned upside down when his precious e-bike is stolen. New York a city that never sleeps is the setting of this escapade.

Director Lloyd Lee-Choi has opened a window into an unforgiving world that looks at the forgotten people that pass us by every day; delivery drivers we see them all the time, day and night and don’t even bat an eyelid at them.

Director Lloyd Lee-Choi has opened a window into an unforgiving world that looks at the forgotten people that pass us by every day

The desperation and the hitting of ‘rock bottom,’ is shown very well by Lu (Limin Wang). His efforts to raise funds for a new bike do not materialise, despite this his creativity in finding ways around the problem, namely, ‘do unto others as they do unto you,’ is presented impartially and without prejudice.

The cinematography by Norm Li shows New York as a dark and foreboding place, one that seems to invite misfortune; the camera shots are very static, and the viewer is left with a feeling that for the workers that perform menial and thankless jobs the world does not change.

SAME OLD is aptly titled and having viewed it, I would say that these forgotten faces are the ones that do the moving and that they deserve respect and gratitude. A film that is sweeping the awards circuit and deserves a place on the Academy Awards live action short film shortlist.