The Long Walk is a 2019 Laotian film by Mattie Do, and her third feature film overall.
An old Laotian hermit discovers that the ghost of a road accident victim can transport him back in time fifty years to the moment of his mother’s painful death.
Not to be confused with the retirement option for judges, Sławomir Rawicz’s disputed memoir of the same name, or the Stephen King novel.
Tropes present in this film:
- Accidental Time Travel: At one point, the Old Man travels to the Boy's house by accident in the past. His Father, obviously not recognising him, chases him off with a machete.
- Alternate Timeline: The Old Man first realises he's created one when he notices the dresser being cracked and being told it was always that way.
- The dresser only cracks in the timeline where his Father steals the extra money from his Mother. His father stole it from the Boy instead in the original timeline where it doesn't crack.
- Fashions Never Change: The Old Man's clothes from the future fit in perfectly from 50 years earlier. Justified in that he comes from a poor area and cannot afford many new clothes.
- Help Yourself in the Future: The Old Man attempts to do this with himself from 50 years ago. By his own admission, it failed.
- Matricide:| The Old Man euthanizes his mother in front of his younger self.
- My Future Self and Me: The Old Man is the Boy from 50 years in the future.
- No Name Given: The Boy, Old Man, Girl, and Mother are never given names.
- Only One Name: Literally nobody in the entire film ever has their last name specified.
- Our Time Travel Is Different: The Girl can travel can create barriers in time through creating literal lines in the sand. While the Old Man and Girl seem to do it with no issues, the Boy finds it unbearable after a few seconds.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Old Man has one.
- Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: At the end of the film, the Old Man admits that his attempts to relieve people's suffering only created more suffering.
- Smoking Is Cool: The Old Man is frequently shown using a vape.
- Suicide by Pills: The Old Man's fate, at the end of the movie.
- Temporal Sucidie: The Old Man kills his younger self in a burning building.
- Time Master: The Girl, and by extension, the Old Man.
- Wham Line: I watched you grow up, grow old, and then die, circling around a thousand times.
