It’s My Time review – Michelle Yeoh excels in Rocky-style quest to be Rubik’s Cube champ

Key points

• Michelle Yeoh plays real-life former maths teacher Zhao Yanhong, who became a Rubik's Cube champion in retirement.
• Yeoh reportedly spent two years learning the Rubik's Cube for the role.
• The film follows a predictable sports-movie formula and fictionalises the true story.

It's My Time is a Chinese drama starring Michelle Yeoh as Zhao Yanhong, a real-life former maths teacher who became a Rubik's Cube champion after retiring. Yeoh reportedly spent two years learning the Rubik's Cube to prepare for the role.

The film fictionalises Zhao's true story to fit a sports-movie formula, according to the review. It is described as so-so entertaining and funny in places, but disappointingly predictable.

Zhao's story on screen

After a stroke, Zhao lives in a nursing home, where she is the resident badass, assaulting her robot care companion and making illicit trips to the off-licence. She discovers her talent for the Rubik's Cube when a washed-up ex-champion, Wu Youwei (Haoran Liu), comes to the nursing home to give a tutorial.

Wu agrees to coach her, and the film follows qualifying heats and training that includes lifting weights and running. Wu says physical strength is Zhao's weak spot.

Yeoh gives a superb, spiky performance as blunt, foul-tempered Zhao Yanhong

— The Guardian Culture

Yeoh's performance and reaction

Yeoh gives a superb, spiky performance as the blunt, foul-tempered Zhao, who goes viral after thrashing a kid in her first competition. Her online fans call her "Grandma Zhao", and the film gently challenges stereotypes of the older generation, as fans assume she is a cuddly elder while younger cubers underestimate her skill and stamina.

The review notes that the film turns soft-edged after making Zhao so testy, and that cubing's popularity extends to its own world championship.