During the economic reform period of the 80's, three friends bind together by a common ambition – to live the American dream. The three leads Huang Xiao Ming, Deng Chao and Tong Dawei create a very believable camaraderie. It is possible to be happy for your friend doing well and envy him at the same time, and that is the central story between these three friends. Huang Xiao Ming brings his best performance thus far. He's not busy preening for the camera and posing a pretty boy as I have seen in his past works. It's partly the role itself as it asks Huang to start by playing a vulnerable teenage boy who eventually that ages into a man.
There's a trend of using very fast cuts in Mainland comedies right now. It originated with Ning Hao's 2006 heist comedy Crazy Stone - which drew its visual style from Guy Ritchie - and now it has officially embedded itself genetically as filmic grammar for Chinese comedic dialogue. There's a scene where two of the friends had a fight and complain about each other individually with the third friend over a ping pong game. The cutting is so fast between conversation A and conversation B that it's impossible for the audience to really feel what these characters are going through. These montages will happen every now and then to speed the story ahead. It's zany for sure, but at times I wish they would let the scenes breathe instead of zeroing in for laughs.
That said, it's smart on Peter Chan's part of picking up on this trend and using it here because American Dreams in China is a Mainland Chinese story made for the Mainland audience. The content may prove more difficult with English-speaking audiences whom aren't aware of the cultural context or why the 3 friends carry the values they do about America and the American Dream to laugh at it whole-heartedly.
Suffice to say, Chan balances the film well and it is impressive to see a Hong Kong director tune to a Mainland frequency. Best thing I can say about Peter Chan's direction is that he is worldly. He doesn't portray Americans as white devils, which makes things more interesting and engaging. American Dreams in China will connect with its audience, namely Chinese people who were born in the 80's, and those people will enjoy it. Everybody else I am not so sure but this is a nice gem of a film nonetheless.
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