Dark Matter

No one can know what is in the mind of another-especially in the case of mass murder. Shi-Zheng Chen, director of DARK MATTER, has created a fresh vision of America from the point of view of a recent arrival to this country. Liu Ying, masterfully played by Ye Liu, is a Chinese graduate student who has come to the US to study Cosmology with a professor that he has idolized his entire life. Ying's life seems to be filled with unlimited possibility, and the answers to all of his dreams and wishes seem just around the corner. DARK MATTER's forte is the portrayal of the energized spirit in this young graduate student. The film is shot in Big Sky country of Utah, and this location perfectly mirrors this limitless potential. Ying's area of study is the examination of dark and uncharted areas of the cosmos which seem to exert dramatic effects on the nature of life. These 'dark areas' are mirrored in the clandestine machinations of the politics of graduate school. It seems that the unfettered life of the mind only works if new ideas are able to fit within intellectual processes which have been well established over time. And this becomes the dilemma of the film. How can the free and uninhibited flow of ideas intersect with the rigidity of higher education? The sudden and shocking climax to the movie is a resolution to this issue, although certainly not a fair or just one. DARK MATTER shows how violence can be the inescapable consequence of murdered hope.