Hindle 's prize-ladened work of cataclysmic visual and mental schisms stands as one-of-a-kind. Chinese Firedrill is a romantic, nostalgic film. Yet its nostalgia is of the unknown, of vague emotions, haunted dreams, unspoken words, silences between sounds. It's nostalgic for the oceanic present rather than the remembered past. It is a total fantasy, yet it seems more real than the coldest documentary, The action occurs totally within the mind of the protagonist, who never leaves the small room in which he lives... Through the door/mirror is the beyond, the unreachable, the unattainable