Xiaolu Guo's adaptation of her own novel is an insightful treatment of China's place in the global village, writes Peter Bradshaw
This film, by London-based Chinese novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo, won the Golden Leopard at Locarno and has been liked and admired on the festival circuit. Understandably so. It is bold and unparochial in a doggedly low-key style, following the story of Li Mei (Lu Huang), a young woman who journeys from a remote Chinese village to London, finding that "the west" – an idealised place of impossibly glamorous consumer riches – is just as tough as the place she left. In her home town, bored and mutinous Li Mei goes to the cinema with a truck driver who sexually assaults her; then she hangs out, blankly, with a moody guy in the pirate-dvd business who is proud that the cousin of ex-premier Jiang Zemin once spoke to him in...
This film, by London-based Chinese novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo, won the Golden Leopard at Locarno and has been liked and admired on the festival circuit. Understandably so. It is bold and unparochial in a doggedly low-key style, following the story of Li Mei (Lu Huang), a young woman who journeys from a remote Chinese village to London, finding that "the west" – an idealised place of impossibly glamorous consumer riches – is just as tough as the place she left. In her home town, bored and mutinous Li Mei goes to the cinema with a truck driver who sexually assaults her; then she hangs out, blankly, with a moody guy in the pirate-dvd business who is proud that the cousin of ex-premier Jiang Zemin once spoke to him in...
- 2/25/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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