This aired once and only once when I was around 8 years old and yet it haunted me for over three decades.
The concept and premise is very unique. Time as currency. You pay by the minutes, hours, days and even years of your life. And yet that's not the message of the film but rather how different people choose to use that time.
Some squander, some give it to their community, others rock back and forth listening to the seconds tick by.
Rewatching it, I think it's because each character was allowed to make his or her own mistakes was why it stuck with me. It's made very clear what path each person is on, you know where this is going, but in the end that's life and each has to live their own.
I'm removing a star for the ending, it always felt foreign to me though now as an adult I can identify it as "the American dream". Pull yourself out of the gutter and hustle hustle hustle. The rules apply to the poor, the rich make the rules and all that jazz, the underdog story...etc.
I'm pretty sure the movie "in time" ripped it of but decided to focus on the /time is currency/ premise and all the technicalities that come with it instead of actually trying to say something like this movie did.
