China Archives – Page 2 of 8

Review: ‘Malice’ (2025), starring Zhang Xiaofei, Huang Xuan, Teresa Li, Mei Ting, Chen Yusi, Zhang Zixian and Yang Enyou

July 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Zhang Xiaofei in “Malice” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Malice” (2025)

Directed by Yao Wenyi

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025 (with flashbacks to 2019), in Hangzhou, China, the dramatic film “Malice” features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: When a young hospital nurse and her 10-year-old cancer patient fall from a hospital rooftop, an ambitious TV news anchor rushes to be first with exclusive reports about the investigation, which leads to dire consequences for several people involved.

Culture Audience: “Malice” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful dramas about crime cases and how these cases are covered in the media.

Chen Yusi in “Malice” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Malice” can get a little preachy in its messaging about social media gossip and news media exploitation. However, it’s still an engrossing, twist-filled drama about the mysterious case of a nurse and her 10-year-old cancer patient, who both fell from a hospital rooftop. It’s an impactful story and cautionary tale about how it’s important not to jump to conclusions without getting as many facts as possible.

Directed by Yao Wenyi and written by Zhang Zhen, “Malice” takes place in Hangzhou, China. The movie is set in 2025, but most of the story is a flashback to 2019. “Malice” has thought-provoking commentary about the fickleness of how people are portrayed as “heroes” and “villains” in the media, as well as the extreme and reckless things that some people in the media will do in order to increase their audiences.

“Malice” begins by showing part of what happened at Binjiang Third Hospital in Hangzhou, on the night on September 7, 2019. It’s a rainy night, and a 10-year-old female cancer patient named Jing (played by Yang Enyou) has escaped from her room. A 22-year-old nurse named Li Yue (played by Chen Yusi) chases after Jing, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

Jing and Yue both end up on the building’s high-rise rooftop and fall down onto the ground at the same time after tussling with each other. As a result of this tragic fall, Jing dies instantly, while Yue is a coma. Was Jing’s death an accident or not?

Someone who insists that it’s murder is Jing’s distraught mother You Qian (played by Mei Ting), who says she saw Yue force Jing off of the roof during the tussle between Yue and Jing. Qian was several feet away when she saw the fall and couldn’t save Jing in time. Because Qian saw this incident while it was dark and raining, and she was several feet away, Qian’s eyewitness account could be doubted, but most people in the general public immediately believe her.

Before “Malice” reveals the layers of the story about how this tragedy changed certain people’s lives, the movie cuts to a scene in 2025, where a well-known TV journalist named Ye Pan (played by Zhang Xiaofei) is making a speaking appearance to college-age students in an auditorium. The subject is media manipulation. During the lecture, she shows a video of a college professor named Professor Parker who tied himself to a chair and immersed himself in a tank of water.

As the water tank filled up, Professor Parker did a livestream on social media to say he would let himself drown in the tank if he got 1 million “likes” on the livestream within 31 hours. As the deadline approached, Pan asks the students what they think the outcome would be if they knew the professor had been accused of sexual harassment. Most of the students predicted that the public would want the professor to drown in the tank.

Pan continues to play the video recording until it shows that 1 million views were reached. Professor Parker burst out of the tank and revealed that it was all a social experiment to gauge how far the public was willing to go to “punish” him because of this scandal. Pan goes on to explain that eventually there was video evidence to prove the professor really did commit sexual harassment, but his stunt was an extreme example of “cancel culture” on the Internet. “In this Internet age,” Pan says, “malice is at the fingertips.”

During this speaking appearance in the auditorium, one of the students asks Pan about her involvement in covering the case of Jing and Li Yue falling from Binjiang Third Hospital’s rooftop. And that’s when “Malice” flashes back to 2019 for most of the movie. It should come as no surprise that different versions of what happened on that rooftop caused controversy and condemnations, fueled largely by social media influencers and traditional news reporters.

In 2019, Pan was the chief anchor/executive producer of a public TV news outlet called Evening Channel. And her husband Liang Guan (played by Huang Xuan) was the police captain in charge of investigating this case. At most legitimate news outlets, Pan would not be allowed to investigate the case, due to her spousal conflict of interest. But viewers soon see that Evening Channel isn’t exactly an ethical news outlet.

Pan’s boss Xiao Baoqian (played by Zhang Zixian) is obsessed with making the Evening Channel the media outlet with the largest audience (especially on social media) for this news story and for all news stories. Baoqian gives explicit orders to Evening Channel employees—including a producer named Haozi (played by Lei Songran) and Pan’s intern Chen Chen (played by Teresa Li)—to let them know that Baoqian’s top priority is increasing Evening Channel’s viewership, not ethical journalism. Therefore, Baoqian has no qualms about Pan pursuing this news story, which she is eager to do because she also cares about getting as large an audience as possible.

Pan also has an interest in the case because not long before Jing died, Pan had done an Evening Channel feature story on Jing, Qian, and Jing’s stepfather Wei Qiang (played by Li Xiaochuan), because the family was soliciting donations for surgery that Jing needed. Pan doesn’t ask her husband to compromise his police investigation by telling her what he knows. She wants to do her own independent investigation. She decides to go undercover by pretending to be sick so that she can check into Binjiang Third Hospital as a patient.

While in the hospital, Pan interviews several hospital employees about Yue, who has been already portrayed in the media as a murderous villain. It doesn’t help that Yue’s social media videos and photos revealed that she was struggling with depression and self-esteem issues. Pan finds out from hospital employees that Yue wasn’t very well-liked by her co-workers because people thought she was bossy and rude.

Yue was also the subject of gossip because she was having an affair with Dr. Meng Hao (played by Pei Kuishan), an older married man who was also Jing’s doctor at the hospital. And then, Qian tells Pan an exclusive bombshell: Not long before Jing died, Jing took a photo of Dr. Hao and Yue in a secretive lovers’ embrace at the hospital and had showed the photo to Qian and other people at the hospital.

Yue found out about that Jing took this photo, which caused a scandal where Dr. Hao and Yue were disciplined and their professional reputations were tarnished. Dr. Hao’s wife also caused a scene when she showed up at the hospital and physically attacked Yue. After the scandal, Qian says that Yue told Qian that Yue was suicidal, and Yue made a comment that Yue was going to hell and taking Jing with her. Qian believes this is why she thinks Yue murdered Jing.

Pan puts all this information in a story as exclusive breaking news on Evening Channel. A responsible journalist would’ve done more investigating. However, Pan is feeling pressure to be first with a major story about the case, so she doesn’t do enough fact checking or more investigation. This carelenessness will come back to haunt her.

Pan’s story increases the audience for Evening Channel, which has hired social media influencers to boost the channel’s online coverage of the story. However, some things happen that put Qian’s version of events into doubt. And even more secrets are uncovered that aren’t immediately apparent and won’t be revealed in this review.

Here are some details that can be mentioned without revealing the movie’s biggest plot twists: A young man named Dao Ye (played by Li Jiuxiao), using the alias Lord Dao, comes forward to defend Yue. In an exclusive interview with Pan on live TV, Dao saying that Yue was actually a wonderful person who helped him through a difficult time when he was suicidal and dealing with his biploar disorder.

Dao also says that when Yue got romantically involved with Dr. Hao, it was because Dr. Hao lied to her by saying he was divorced. Dao is outraged that Yue is being called a murderer by many people in the general public. The camera does a close-up of his face durng his interview as he says: “So I ask the 9 million people watching this: ‘Are you really that righteous?'”

Yue’s single mother (played by Ai Liya), who has been keeping a loyal vigil by Yue’s bedside, also says that Yue is not guilty of this murder accusation. Yue’s mother claims that Jing’s mother Qian is lying because Qian has a personal grudge against Yue. And then, a hospital surveillance video is found that puts Qian under suspicion. A medical examiner report also places doubt on Qian’s story.

At first, Pan gets some public criticism for being quick to make Yue look guilty. But in the media feeding frenzy for this case, her journalistic blunders are temporarily forgotten, as Pan admits she could’ve been wrong because of the limited information that she had at the time. Pan and other people following the case move on to other theories and possible “villains,” with the court of public opinion ready to convict someone before it’s determined whether or not a crime took place.

“Malice” has some realistic satire with montages portraying social media influencers trying to jump on the bandwagon with videos of conspiracy theories, condemnations of possible suspects, and performances of original songs about the suspects. This type of media circus is very true of what happens in real life with high-profile crime investigations. “Malice” also has scathing depictions of how people jump to conclusions based on their own personal biases, such as some people on social media saying that Yue is probably guilty, just because Yue came from a broken home where her father abandoned the family.

The movie stumbles when it tries to incorporate Pan and her husband’s relationship in the story. Although it’s easy to see why “Malice” wanted to add this layer of complication to Pan’s investigation, her husband isn’t in the movie enough to make a huge impact on the story. In real life, it would be a much bigger deal for a well-known TV reporter to be married to the chief police investigator of a case that the reporter is covering.

“Malice” has a flashback to another controversial news story that Pan covered in her past. In this news story, Pan did an exposé of people who were paid to give their “clean” urine that could be used by people who wanted to cheat in drug testing that uses urine samples. A tragedy happened as a result of that news story. This tragedy leads to the most soap-opera-like parts of the movie.

“Malice” is by no means perfect. The editing can be choppy, and the pacing of the story is often rushed. The movie also crams in a plot twist near the end related to Pan’s past drug-testing story that comes across as gimmicky. However, the acting performances are well-done, even for some of the two-dimensional characters, such as corrupt boss Baoqian. “Malice” is a fictional film, but it’s also a cautionary tale about real life: People who consume exploitative news stories about scandals are just as complicit in the exploitation as the people who report these types of news stories.

Niu Vision Media released “Malice” in U.S. cinemas on July 4, 2025. The movie was released in China on July 5, 2025.

Review: ‘Big World’ (2024), starring Jackson Yee, Diana Lin, Jiang Qinqin and Zhou Yutong

April 20, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jackson Yee and Diana Lin in “Big World” (Photo courtesy of China Film Co.)

“Big World” (2024)

Directed by Yang Lina

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in China, the dramatic film “Big World” features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy dreams of going to college so he can become a teacher while he goes through various ups and downs in his relationships with his mother and grandmother.

Culture Audience: “Big World” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in dramas about disabled people and their families.

Jiang Qinqin in “Big World” (Photo courtesy of China Film Co.)

“Big World” is uneven and a little too long. However, it’s a likable drama about a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy and his relationships with his grandmother, his mother, and a possible girlfriend. The movie handles disability issues realistically by showing the compassion and prejudice that disabled people experience.

Directed by Yang Lina and written by You Xiaoying, “Big World” (whose total running time is 132 minutes) has a misleading trailer than makes the movie look more comedic than it really is. There are also huge parts of the storyline that are not seen in the trailer, which makes it look like the movie is mostly about the main character trying to find acceptance in a music group where his grandmother is a member. “Big World” is about much more than Chunhe’s role in the music group. It’s his coming-of-age story where he learns about self-acceptance and self-confidence.

“Big World” (which takes place in an unnamed city in China) begins by showing protagonist Lin Chunhe (played by Jackson Yee), a young man with cerebral palsy, on the rooftop of the apartment building where he lives. He’s writing his last will and testament. Chunhe is not suicidal but he believes his life expectancy won’t be as long other people’s.

Chunhe lives with his prickly single mother Chen Lu (played by Jiang Qinqin), but his life will soon be brightened by the return of his beloved grandmother Chen Suqun (played by Diana Lin), who is Lu’s mother. For the past year, Suqun was at a senior living home, but she has come back to live with Chunhe and Lu because Lu asked her to help take care of Chunhe.

Lu often acts like Chunhe is a burden. By contrast, Suqun treats Chunhe with unconditional love and respect. Suqun encourages Chunhe’s dream to apply to a place called Normal University because he wants to eventually become a teacher. Lu discourages this dream because she says the university is too far away (about 90 minutes by train) from where they live.

Chunhe has some unusual quirks (for example, he likes to sleep next to a life-sized model skeleton in his bed), but he is generally a sweet person who is very perceptive and polite. Chunhe doesn’t give up easily when people tell him that he can’t do something. But he has moments where he naturally gets depressed.

And he still has emotional scars from being rejected by his parents in some way. His father (played by Yue Xiaojun) abandoned the family when Chunhe was a child. His mother never physically abandoned Chunhe but she’s often cold and distant to him.

One of the most impactful scenes in the movie is when Chunhe remembers an incident that happened when he was about 7 or 8 years old. He hid in a suitcase in a bedroom in his home, and his parents thought he went missing. While hiding in the suitcase in a bedroom, Chunhe overheard his parents talking about him. Lun asks Chunhe’s father, “If we don’t find him, wouldn’t our lives be better?”

Near the beginning of the movie, Chunhe turns 20 years old. Suqun has a small birthday party for him where she has invited four members of her musical group. Suqun is the main organizer of the group, which is a singing choir with backup musicians.

The group meets in a nearby park and has been invited to perform in the city of Xin’an. There’s one big problem. The group’s drummer Lao Diao (played by Zou Chengyong) has suddenly quit because he feels disrespected. Diao tells Suqun he no longer wants to be a part of the group because no one in the group has gone to his son’s supermarket, like Diao requested.

And faster than you can say “doting grandmother,” Suqun suggests Chunhe as the group’s new drummer. Never mind that Chunhe hasn’t played the drums since he was in kindergarten. Suqun and Chunhe want to prove that he’s up for the challenge.

Chunhe’s role in the musical group is not really the main focus of the story. Subplots that are not shown in the trailer include Chunhe’s infatuation with a young woman named Yaya (played by Zhou Yutong), whom he meets one day in the park when her frisbee lands near him. Lu also becomes pregnant (the father of the child is never seen or mentioned in the movie), but she wants to keep the pregnancy a secret from Chunhe for as long as possible.

Yee (who does not have cerebral palsy in real life) does an admirable job in the lead role. Lin is outstanding as lively and inspirational Suqun. Although the movie shows Chunhe’s relationships with the three main women in his life, his relationship with his grandmother Suqun is the heart and soul of the movie. Some of the movie’s subplots could have been handled better, but “Big World” brings out emotions in all the right places and is a memorable film to watch for anyone looking for a good story about family love and overcoming life’s challenges.

China Film Co. released “Big World” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 27, 2024.

Review: ‘Always Have Always Will’ (2025), starring Peng Yuchang and Yang Enyou

March 27, 2025

by Carla Hay

Yang Enyou and Peng Yuchang in “Always Have Always Will” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Always Have Always Will” (2025)

Directed by Liu Jie

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Nanjing, China, the dramatic film “Always Have Always Will” features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A suicidal man gets a new lease on life when a 9-year-old girl with brain cancer befriends him.

Culture Audience: “Always Have Always Will” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and bittersweet stories about friendships between people with medical issues.

Peng Yuchang and Yang Enyou in “Always Have Always Will” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Always Have Always Will” is a lovely film about an unlikely friendship between a suicidal man and a precocious 9-year-old girl who has brain cancer. This drama has excellent depictions of joy and heartbreak, with a standout performance from Yang Enyou.

Directed by Liu Jie, “Always Have Always Will” (not to be confused with the Chinese 2021 TV series of the same name) was written by Yang Fuzhi, Zhang Jiajia and Guo Tao. The movie takes place primarily in Nanjing, China. It’s where Song Yili (played by Peng Yuchang) lives and where he has decided he wants to die. The beginning of the movie shows that Yili has become so depressed, he wants to commit suicide.

Yili, who is in his late 20s or early 30s, is a divorced bachelor who has no friends and is unemployed. He has talented cooking skills, but the restaurant that he inherited from his deceased mother has been out of business for the past six months. Within the first five minutes of the movie, Yili is shown sitting in his parked car on a street as he is about to take an overdose of pills.

But as fate would have it, another car accidentally rams into Yili’s car. Yili wakes up in a hospital room, where has find out that was he only got some minor injuries as a result of this accident. Yili is also told that the driver of the other car takes full responsibility for the collision.

Yili isn’t exactly thrilled that his suicide attempt failed. He shows all the indications of being clinically depressed. Yili also secretly plans to try to kill himself again. Hs ex-wife Tian Meihua (played by Zou Yuanqing) briefly visits him at the hospital because she is the person who’s listed as his emergency contact. Before she leaves, she tells Yili that he should probably change his emergency contact information.

Someone comes into Yili’s life and will change his perspective. Yu Xiaoju (played by Yang Enyou) is a 9-year-old girl with brain cancer. She is staying at the same hospital and first meets Yili when she mischievously runs away from her unnamed mother (played by Lyu Xingchen) and hides in Yili’s hospital room. Xiaoju is friendly and has a zest for life.

Yili doesn’t want this kid to hang around him, but Xiaoju persists and ends up hiding in Yili’s van after he is discharged from the hospital. Xiaoju begs him to help him find her father, whom she has not seen in years. And so, Yili and Xiaoju end up going on a life-changing road trip. Xiaoju tricks Yili into thinking that her mother has approved of this trip.

On this road trip, Yili and Xiaoju have meaningful encounters with Yili’s former college roommate and a lovelorn businesswoman. Yili and Xiaoju meet up with Yili’s former college roommate Fang Kuaiqi (played by Wei Daxun), whose nickname is Diamond Seven, because Yili wants to borrow money from him. The businesswoman, whose name is Xu Jingjing (played by Li Xueqin) randomly meets Yili and Xiaoju when she needs a ride to an important business meeting.

Diamond Seven owns a small gift shop and hasn’t seen or spoken to Yili in a year because Yili cut off contact with him. Through conversations, it’s revealed that Yili, Diamond Seven and Yili’s ex-wife used to be roommates when they were college students. Yili’s divorce, the death of Yili’s mother and the failure of Yili’s restaurant business put Yili on a downward spiral of depression.

The reunion with Diamond Seven (who says Yili gave him that nickname) reveals that Yili wasn’t always pessimistic and grumpy. Diamond Seven and Yili have known each other since childhood. Diamond Seven says that Yili was the only student in their childhood who didn’t bully or taunt Diamond Seven for being disabled. Seeing his longtime friend again reminds Yili of the person he used to be when he was happy.

Xu Jingjing appears to be a confident and independent woman, but she’s distracted by problems in her love life. When she finds out something that is emotionally devastating to her, Yili sees how she copes with it. It inspires him to think about coping with his own problems in a different way from the self-pitying and self-destructive path that he had been taking.

Xiaoju ends up being Yili’s biggest inspiration, despite some rough patches in their friendship. All of the performances in “Always Have Always Will” are heartfelt and believable. But this movie would not work as well without the impressive talent of Yang, who gives one of the best child actor performances of the year. “Always Have Always Will” overflows with emotions and has a story that will stay with viewers long after the movie is over.

Niu Vision Media released “Always Have Always Will” in select U.S. cinemas and in China on March 21, 2025. The movie was released in China on March 8, 2025.

Review: ‘Octopus With Broken Arms,’ starring Xiao Yang, Tong Liya, Duan Yihong and Cya Liu

January 18, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Octopus With Broken Arms”

Directed by Jacky Gan

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the action film “Octopus With Broken Arms” features an all-Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A billionaire widowed businessman fights mysterious enemies after his 8-year-old daughter is kidnapped.

Culture Audience: “Octopus With Broken Arms” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching action crime thrillers that are convoluted, just for the sake of having “shocking” twists.

A scene from “Octopus With Broken Arms” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Octopus With Broken Arms” has plenty of suspenseful action, but it has too many far-fetched plot twists. The melodramatic overacting looks too fake and does a disservice to the film’s serious subject of children who are kidnapped and enslaved. “Octopus With Broken Arms” takes this subject and puts in a very manipulative story that constantly insults viewers’ intelligence

Directed by Jacky Gan and written by Li Peng, “Octopus With Broken Arms” (formerly titled “Sheep Without a Shepherd 3”) takes place in unnamed cities in China. The movie begins by showing billionaire widower Zheng Bingrui (played by Xiao Yang) proudly watching his 8-year-old daughter Tingting (played by Chloe Ye) performing on stage for a school play. Tingting’s teacher Li Huiping (played by Tong Liya) seems to have a good relationship with her, which is why Bingrui invites Huiping to Tingting’s upcoming birthday party.

Bingrui is the chairman of Ruiting Group, a company that he owns. It’s briefly mentioned in a news report that Ruiting Group makes facial masks. Because of his wealth, Bingrui is famous throughout China. The movie is named “Octopus With Broken Arms” because Tingting, Bingrui and Huiping having matching octopus stamps on their hands.

At the birthday party, things seem to be going well until Tingting disappears. Not long after the disappearance, Bingrui gets a call demanding a $100 million ransom (which is about ¥732,500 RMB) for the return of Tingting. Bingrui is willing to pay the money, but he understandably wants law enforcement to catch the kidnapper or kidnappers.

Bingrui immediately names two possible suspects: Shi Fu’an (played by Feng Bing) is someone who is Bingrui’s enemy, for reasons that are revealed later in the movie. The other suspect is a mute gardener named Lu (played by Bokeh Kosang), who was seen on a surveillance video appearing to driving Tingting to Fu’an’s home. Lu goes through an intense and brutal interrogation by police.

However, early on in the movie, it’s shown that someone else has been making the ransom calls, using a device that disguises the caller’s voice. This person wears a hooded jacket and is in a room that has several video monitors that can watch every move made by Bingrui, even when Bingrui and Huiping zip around on a boat in a lake to deliver the ransom money. This “everywhere all at once” video surveillance is when the movie starts to fall apart and spirals into nonsense.

Meanwhile, another child named Daymond Pankong (played by Chayanon Akradamrongdet) is kidnapped and used as bait for Bingrui to find Tingting. Pangkong is named after his father (played by Jack Kao), who is the director of China’s National Security Agencyu. There’s also a woman named Yayin (played by Cya Liu), who has a big role in the story because of something that happened in her past.

The police leader in the child kidnapping investigation is police captain Zhang Jingxian (played by Duan Yihong), who is somewhat helpful, but “Octopus With Broken Arms” is really about making Bingrui the vigilante action hero of the story. Liang Su’e (played by Sandrine Pinna) is a police officer who assists in the case. The violence in “Octopus With Broken Arms” can be quite gruesome, such as a scene depicting a child’s finger being cut off by a kidnapper. There are also shootouts, chase scenes, fist fights, explosions and other action movie clichés.

A tragedy that happened in 2017 is the catalyst for some of the characters’ motives. As explained in the movie, in June 2017, a ship was headed to the border of China, when a gas leak caused the ship to explode. All 619 people on board were killed, including 23 children. The people on the ship were refugees trying to cross the border illegally.

The relationship between Bingrui and Huiping is never adequately explained. Why is this schoolteacher running around with Bingrui and getting herself into dangerous situations like a superhero sidekick? It’s because she’s in a preposterous movie.

Unfortunately, “Octopus With Broken Arms” tries to cram in too many ideas without much cohesive thought. The movie jumps from one plot twist to the next—and almost none of them are believable. The choppy editing often makes “Octopus With Broken Arms” look incoherent. And by the time secrets are revealed (along with the movie’s many plot holes), none of it makes enough sense for the movie’s ending to have its intended impact.

CMC Pictures released “Octopus With Broken Arms” in select U.S. cinemas on January 10, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 28, 2024.

Review: ‘Honey Money Phony,’ starring Gia Jin, Sunny Sun, Li Xueqin, Wang Hao, David Wang, Ada Liu and Song Muzi

January 6, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Honey Money Phony”

Directed by Da Peng

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Aoo Kang, China, the comedy film “Honey Money Phony” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An employee from an insurance company teams up with con artists to get back the money that her ex-boyfriend stole from her.

Culture Audience: “Honey Money Phony” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and comedies that are intentionally silly but might annoy some viewers expecting a more entertaining movie.

Pictured clockwise from left: Sunny Sun, Li Xueqin, David Wang and Gia Jin in “Honey Money Phony” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Honey Money Phony” is a lightweight comedy that falls short of its potential. The story (about people trying to retrieve stolen money from a con artist) gets convoluted and dull very quickly. The performances are adequate while the plot spirals into folly. The movie is intentionally absurdist, but the movie has an uneven tone of being overly sappy while attempting to be edgy. It’s a combination that just doesn’t work for this film.

Directed by Da Peng and written by Su Biao, “Honey Money Phony” (which takes place in the fictional city of Aoo Kang, China) has a simple concept that becomes stretched out and muddled by a series of sloppily staged shenanigans. The main characters are introduced in a somewhat jumbled way. Other characters with smaller roles come in and out of the story and end up being quite useless to the plot. “Honey Money Phony” isn’t exactly fun to watch, unless you think it’s fun to watch characters repeatedly make fools out of themselves in their bungled attempts to do whatever they’re doing in incoherent scenes.

The protagonist of “Honey Money Phony” is Lin Quinlang (played by Gia Jin), a 29-year-old woman who works as an insurance company employee. Quinlang is in debt for about ¥200,000 (which is a little more than $27,000 in U.S. dollars in the mid-2020s) because an ex-boyfriend named Zhang Zi Jun (played by Wang Hao) scammed her out of this money. A flashback shows that Jun lied to her and told her that he lost all of his college tuition money. Quinlang took out a ¥200,000 loan and gave the money to Jun, who then promptly broke up with her and disappeared from her life.

An early montage in the film shows that in addition to her main job at the insurance company, Quinlang has “side hustle” gigs as a waitress, flyer distributor, dog walker and being a social media personality called the Frugal Fairy, who gives advice on how to save money. In voiceover narration, Quinlang says that she doesn’t make enough money from her Frugal Fairy videos to cover the fees charged for her to be a member of the social media platform where she posts the videos.

Quinlang’s closest friend is Dong Xiaohui (played by Li Xueqin), a former co-worker at the insurance company. The movie has a rushed explanation that in the recent past, Xiaohui got caught embezzling money from the insurance company and was fired. Xiaohui now has to pay back the money that she owes from the embezzlement.

And the way that Xiaohui is getting money is by continuing to commit fraud. Her scam is pretending to be a blind woman, walking out on a street in front of car, and falling down, in order to fool the driver into thinking that the car hit her. Xiaohui even carries fake blood with her to quickly put on herself before the driver gets out of the car to see if she is hurt. As part of the scam, Xiaohui persuades the driver (who is usually shocked and nervous) to give her money to get “medical treatment” and so she won’t report this “accident.”

“Honey Money Phony” has a very off-putting way in how it makes Xiaohui’s scamming look acceptable, like it’s all one big joke. There’s no good reason for why the movie has this attitude that Xiaohui can be excused for her scamming, but anyone who scams Quinlang is “wrong” and should be punished. It’s all very hypocritical and stupid.

One day, Quinlang becomes the victim of another scam in a poorly staged scenario that looks very unrealistic in the movie. Quinlang gets a phone call from a man claiming to work for the company where she posts her social media videos. The caller tells Quinlang that her social media account is suspended because she put her personal banking information online so viewers could make direct deposits to her account.

When Quinlang says that this is a common practice for social media influencers, the caller says it’s still against the company policy. The caller than says that Quinlang can fix the problem by paying a fine and her social media account will be reactivated. The man gives her an account number where she can transfer the money to pay the fine. Quinlang doesn’t actually check to see if her account is suspended. She just takes this stranger’s word for it. How idiotic is that?

Quinlang transfers the money and immediately regrets it. She rushes over to a bank, where a friend works, and asks the friend to look up the name of the person who owns the account while Quinlang still has the caller on the phone. The friend tells her the account is owned by someone named Ouyang Hui (played by Sunny Sun), who is surprised that Quinlang found out his identity so quickly. An angry Quinlang threatens to expose him.

But in this ridiculous movie, Quinlang ends up telling Hui about how she was scammed out of ¥200,000 by her ex-boyfriend Jun. Hui makes a deal with Quinlang that he will return her money for the “suspension fine” fraud, and he will help her get her money back from Jun if she doesn’t report Hui to the authorities. It should come as no surprise that Quinlang and Hui become romantically attracted to each other, although the cast members playing these characters don’t have believable romantic chemistry with each other.

Two other people eventually join this plot to get the money back from Jun: Quinlang’s friend Xiaohui; Hui’s uncle Bai Shitong (played by David Wang), who is Hui’s con-artist “mentor”; and Hai Ou (played by Ada Liu), another victim conned by Jun. Because Jun is a ladies’ man who seduces women out of their money, you can easily guess what kind of setup will happen, since Jun has never met Xiaohui before. Someone named Frank (played by Song Muzi) is also part of the story.

“Honey Money Phony” gets distracted with some nonsensical sublots that are supposed to be hilarious but quickly grow tiresome. There’s a running joke that Quinlang and Hui keep encountering a weird photographer (played by Yi Yunhe), who has salivary glands that are so over-active, he drenches people in saliva whenever he talks to them. By the end of a conversation with him, people literally look like they’ve been dunked in a swimming pool.

This over-exaggerated sight gag would be funnier if “Honey Money Phony” went full-tilt into slapstick comedy. But the movie keeps going back into sob story territory when it tells more information about Quinlang and Hui. Quinlang says she moved to Aoo Kang to start fresh after being fired from her previous job for reporting the boss who sexually harassed her. A flashback shows that when she met Jun at a tennis court, he offered to help her with legal problems that she had because she broke a non-compete clause in the contract she had with a previous job.

Hui also has a backstory that is supposed to make him look more sympathetic. It has to do with Hui being an illegitimate child whose father (played by Xiao Ai, in a brief flashback) abandoned Hui when Hui was a child. Shitong is supposed to be Hui’s uncle, but the movie has a repetitive off-kilter joke that Quinlang somehow thinks that Hui and Shitong are lovers. “Honey Money Phony” is mostly goofy, but throwing in incest jokes just seems jarringly out-of-place. It’s an example of how the movie can’t decide if it wants to be edgy or tender.

The cast members seem to be doing the best that they can with a screenplay and direction that aren’t very good. It might be hard for some viewers to relate to Quinlang because she’s so gullible when it comes to being scammed out of her money—even though insurance company workers are trained on how to spot scams, and Quinlang gives financial advice as a social media “influencer.” One of the better performances in the cast comes from Li, who has skilled comedic timing in her role as Xiaohui, although this character is fairly unlikable in how she’s a con artist too.

“Honey Money Phony” overstays its welcome with two separate epilogues. In one of these epilogues, Richie Ren has a cameo as himself in a concert scene that looks very hokey. By the time the second epilogue rolls around, most viewers will just want the film to end once and for all. And unfortunately, “Honey Money Phony” is the type of disappointing movie that is easily forgotten not long after seeing it.

CMC Pictures released “Honey Money Phony” in select U.S. cinemas on January 3, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 31, 2024.

Review: ‘Her Story’ (2024), starring Song Jia, Zhong Chuxi, Zhang Yu, Mark Chao, Ren Bin and Isabella Zeng

November 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

Isabella Zeng, Song Jia and Zhong Chuxi in “Her Story” (Photo courtesy of Tiger Pictures Entertainment)

“Her Story” (2024)

Directed by Shao Yihui

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the comedy/drama film “Her Story” features an all-Asian cast of characters (with one white person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A divorced mother and her bachelorette neighbor become friends and experience various conflicts in their personal lives.

Culture Audience: “Her Story” will appeal mainly to people who are stars of the movie’s headliners and are interested in watching a comedy/drama about friendships and romance from a female perspective.

Zhang Yu and Mark Chao in “Her Story” (Photo courtesy of Tiger Pictures Entertainment)

“Her Story” skillfully balances comedy and drama in this entertaining story about how a divorced mother and her bachelorette friend navigate various relationships. It’s a movie about female empowerment that isn’t preachy or sappy. The movie pokes fun at male narcissism, but “Her Story” isn’t one of those annoying man-hating movies that try to make all men look bad in the name of feminism.

Written and directed by Shao Yihui, “Her Story” takes place in an unnamed city in China. The story begins by showing divorced mother Wang Tiemei (played by Song Jia) moving to a new apartment with her 9-year-old daughter Wang Moli (played by Isabella Zeng), who is an inquisitive and polite child. Moli’s interests are music (she’s is a big fan of Taylor Swift) and creative writing. Tiemei is very outspoken and an independent thinker. She’s teaching her daughter Moli to be a confident feminist.

Tiemei, who is in her 40s, is a journalist who is financially struggling and has recently lost her job. In the past, around the same time that Moli was a baby, Tiemei took a break from journalism because she became disillusioned from feeling that her work was not making enough impact in an oppressive system. However, Tiemei is about to start a new job as editor-in-chief of an online publication that is also financially struggling. The website does a mixture of tabloid stories, news coverage and lifestyle interest features.

Xiaoye, nicknamed Ye (played by Zhong Chuxi), is a bachelorette in her 30s who lives in apartment unit across from where Tiemei and Moli live. Ye is the lead singer and guitarist of a rock band called Unconditional Surrender, which plays moody “alternative” music. Although she’s an entertainer and has an extroverted side, Ye is somewhat passive and reluctant to express her true self, out of fear that it will alienate people, so she has a tendency to lie about who she is and her true feelings.

The opposite personalities of Tiemei and Ye are on display in the scene where they first meet. It’s nighttime, and Tiemei is riding a two-wheel scooter when she notices that a creepy man is following a timid-looking Ye in an alley. Ye knows that a man is following her but doesn’t say anything to him because she’s fearful of getting into a confrontation with him. Tiemei, who doesn’t have that fear, scares off the man and advises Ye to be more assertive and aware of her surroundings when she’s walking by herself.

Tiemei and Ye eventually become friends. Ye sometimes babysits Moli. Eventually, Tiemei and Moli go see Ye perform with Unconditional Surrender at a nightclub. Tiemei is inspired by the performance and encourages Moli to learn how to play a musical instrument. Tiemei advises Moli to learn how to play the drums because it’s an instrument that most people don’t expect girls to play.

Tiemei’s ex-husband (played by Mark Chao), who doesn’t have a name in the movie, is a self-centered jerk and is still in contact wth Tiemei because he has visitation rights for Moli. An early scene in the movie shows the ex-husband announcing that he’s gotten a vasectomy so Tiemei doesn’t have to worry about getting pregnant. Even though he and Tiemei are divorced, his ego is so huge, he thinks that she still lusts after him. He also mistakenly thinks Tiemei doesn’t want to date anyone else because he likes to think that her divorce has “spoiled” her interest in finding love again.

Meanwhile, Ye has begun dating a divorced bachelor named Xiao Hu (played by Ren Bin), who is commitment-phobic and doesn’t want their relationship to be more than a “friends with benefits” situation. As an example of how Ye has a tendency to lie, the movie has a running joke about a lie that Ye told to get past the strict security guard (played by Zhou Yemang) in Hu’s upscale apartment building. When she goes to the apartment to meet Hu for their first date, the security guard tells her that only approved guests and family members are allowed entry. Ye lies and says that she is Hu’s stepmother, which is a charade that Ye keeps up every time she sees the security guard.

Ye quickly falls in love with Hu and wants more of a commitment from Hu. But because Ye is the type of person who’s afraid to come right out and say what she wants, she lies to Hu by saying that she doesn’t want a commitment either because she’s married with a daughter. Ye’s lies get more complicated when she pretends that Moli is her daughter and Tiemei is Ye’s lover. It’s a convoluted ploy to try to make Hu jealous.

It’s around this same time that Ye introduces Tiemei to Unconditional Surrender’s drummer: Ma (played by Zhang Yu), a mild-mannered man who has a day job teaching music lessons to children. Tiemei hires Ma to give private drum lessons to Moli. Ma develops a growing attraction to Tiemei, who is unsure if she wants to date this younger man.

“Her Story” has many amusing situations and conversations that show how men and women are adjusting to dating and romance in the #MeToo era. Hu would like to believe he’s enlightened and open-minded when he thinks he has to “share” Ye with Tiemei, but egos and jealousy inevitably get in the way. Ma doesn’t want to be too aggressive in pursuing Tiemei. By contrast, Tiemei’s ex-husband has no qualms about expressing his macho attitude toward Tiemei and Ma, when the ex-husband finds out that Ma is interested in dating Tiemei.

For a long stretch of “Her Story,” the movie seems to be about these romantic entanglements and how they affect the friendship of Tiemei and Ye. But there’s also a parallel story about Moli learning how to play the drums and how it affects Moli’s identity. The last 15 minutes of the film could have gone a certain predictable way, but it admirably does not end up using a safe formula and actually ends in a very realistic way.

All of the cast members do well in their roles, with great comedic timing for the scenes that are supposed to be funny. Song and Zhong are a fantastic duo in showing how the friendship of Tiemei and Ye evolves, as it goes through ups and downs. There are a few stereotypical romantic comedy moments in “Her Story,” but it’s an overall well-written and solidly directed move.

“Her Story” isn’t just a movie about dating and romance. It’s also a tender story about the care and responsibilities involved in raising, guiding and influencing a child. Too often, movies with these types of plots will treat children like pawns or cute pets. However, “Her Story” treats Moli as a person who deserves to be respected as an individual and not just an extension of a parent. It’s a notable aspect of “Her Story” that makes it better than the average movie where single parenting and dating are big themes in the story.

Tiger Pictures Entertainment released “Her Story” in select U.S. cinemas on November 28, 2024. The movie was released in China on November 13, 2024, with an expansion to more Chinese cinemas on November 22, 2024.

Review: ‘The Unseen Sister,’ starring Zhao Liying, Xin Zhilei and Huang Jue

November 13, 2024

by Carla Hay

“The Unseen Sister”

Directed by Midi Z

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China and in Myanmar, the dramatic film “The Unseen Sister” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: The life of a famous actress becomes disrupted when her estranged older sister comes to visit her.

Culture Audience: “The Unseen Sister” will appeal primarily to people fans of filmmaker Midi Z, the movie’s headliners, and dramas about family secrets.

Huang Jue in “The Unseen Sister” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“The Unseen Sister” is a slow-burn psychological drama about a famous actress whose past comes back to haunt her with the arrival of her estranged sister. The movie somewhat stumbles in the last 20 minutes, but the story is intriguing. The movie’s assets outweigh its flaws.

Directed by Midi Z (who co-wrote “The Unseen Sister” screenplay with Yue Xu), “The Unseen Sister” takes place in China and in Myanmar. Qiao Yan (played by Zhao Liying) is a rich and famous actress who is based in Beijing. She is mostly known for her work in television and movies. She is also under pressure to renew a contract that she doesn’t really want to sign.

Yan, whose parents are deceased, is a loner who lives a mostly isolated celebrity life. Yan has a clingy manager named Shen Hao Ming (played by Huang Jue), who is her constant companion. One day, Yan’s older sister (played by Xin Zhilei), who lives in Myanmar, contacts Yan after Yan hasn’t seen or heard from her sister in about 17 years.

Yan’s older sister soon arrives in Beijing. The two sisters have a tense reunion because of something that the sisters know about their past that could cause a scandal. Yan’s sister, who is seven months pregnant, has a reason for this sudden reappearance. Her husband Liang (played by Dong Baoshi), a jade mine businessman, is heavily in gambling debt and is being threatened by gangsters.

What follows is an escalating drama that involves blackmail, kidnapping and family secrets. Yan also experiences sexual harassment from a producer named Mr. Yu (played by Zhang Fan), who has a lot of influence over her career. “The Unseen Sister” has a few twists and turns but it’s not a completely surprising movie. It’s a solid thriller with serviceable acting in a story that’s enough to keep most viewers curious about how the story will end.

CMC Pictures released “The Unseen Sister” in select U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. The movie was released in China on October 26, 2024.

Review: ‘A Place Called Silence’ (2024), starring Eric Wang, Janine Chang, Francis Ng and Wang Shengdi

August 12, 2024

by Carla Hay

Wang Shengdi in “A Place Called Silence” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“A Place Called Silence” (2024)

Directed by Sam Quah

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2006 (with some flashbacks to 2005), the dramatic film “A Place Called Silence” (a remake of the 2022 movie of the same name) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A serial killer goes after people who are connected in some way to a mute girl in high school.

Culture Audience: “A Place Called Silence” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the original version of the movie, but this remake is full of plot holes and unrealistic scenarios with substandard performances.

Janine Chang in “A Place Called Silence” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“A Place Called Silence” is a very unnecessary remake of the 2022 thriller of the same name. In this story about a serial killer whose targets include teenage bullies, the 2024 sloppily edited version of the movie has ridiculous plot twists with exaggerated acting. In fact, the last 30 minutes of the two-hour “A Place Called Silence” could be considered an unintentional comedy because of how the movie expects viewers to believe all the idiotic things that are on display, like a parody of a bad movie.

Sam Quah wrote and directed both versions of “A Place Called Silence.” The 2022 version takes place in Malaysia. The 2024 version takes place in China. The timeline for the 2024 version of “A Place Called Silence” is set mostly in 2006 in an unnamed Chinese city, but there are some flashbacks to 2005.

Near the beginning of 2024’s “A Place Called Silence,” it’s mentioned that the city was devastated by a tsunami that took place in 2005. Much of the movie’s plot is centered on Jing Hwa High School, a school for girls. The beginning of the movie shows the school having a memorial assembly to pay tribute to the school’s students and employees who died in the tsunami.

It isn’t long before it’s shown that the school has a clique of about six to eight “mean girl” bullies. These bullies have taken a mute student named Chen Yutong, nicknamed Tong (played by Wang Shengdi), to an empty classroom, where they have hung her up on a wall and are smearing gel glue all over her face and body. The leader of these hateful girls is Zhong Xiaoqing (played by Gu Mingyi), who seems to be the one to come up with the plans to inflict terror on the bullies’ victims.

A Jing Hwa High School teacher named Mrs. Zhang (played by Cheng Mo), who is unaware of this particular physical assault, is very concerned about Tong’s safety because she knows that Tong has gotten verbal bullying by this “mean girl” clique. Mrs. Zhang tells the school’s principal Au Ziumin (played by Liu Xiaohai), who doesn’t seem to want to get involved. He thinks that any bullying that’s going on is harmless teasing that isn’t serious enough to punish the bullies.

Tong manages to escape from the bullies who attacked her. However, three of the girls (including Xiaoqing) involved in this attack go missing. The movie shows that the serial killer, who wears a hooded raincoat, has been killing these “mean girls,” one by one, usually by bludgeoning them to death with a sledgehammer. The killer’s identity is revealed in the last third of the movie, but that revelation still has some twists.

Tong is an only child who lives with her widowed mother Li Han (played by Janine Chang) in a shabby apartment building. Han is very protective of Tong, but Han has some secrets that some people might or might not know. One of the reasons why Tong is taunted at school is because Han used to be an accountant, but Han now works as a janitor at the school. It’s explained in the movie why this family has had a change in financial fortunes.

Some other characters play pivotal roles in the movie’s plot, which gets annoyingly convoluted as it lurches along to a messy ending. Dai Guodong (played by Francis Ng) is the police detective in charge of the murder investigation. Lin Zaifu (played by Eric Wang) is an introverted former school employee whose teenage daughter Lin Huijun (played by Xu Jiao, seen in flashback scenes) died in 2005. Mrs. Xu (played by Cai Ming) is the shrill and meddling landlord for Huijun.

“A Place Called Silence” could have been a much better movie if it didn’t try to cram in so many “surprises” in the last 30 minutes of the film. The action scenes—particularly those involving a car chase and kidnapping—are poorly conceived and look very fake. Even worse is a suicide scene that looks extremely phony and exploitative.

There’s a mid-credits scene that’s supposed to add the “shocking” reveals in the plot, but it comes across as pretentious and contrived. “A Place Called Silence” tries to have artsy cinematography, but a stylish-looking movie is just superficial if the story is garbage, the film editing is incoherent, and the performances are not impressive. The 2024 version of “A Place Called Silence” is yet another remake that didn’t make improvements from the original film and instead made things worse.

Niu Vision Media released “A Place Called Silence” in select U.S. cinemas on August 2, 2024. The movie was released in China on July 3, 2024.

Review: ‘Sight’ (2024), starring Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear, Danni Wang, Raymond Ma, Ben Wang, Jayden Zhang, Wai Ching Ho and Fionnula Flanagan

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Terry Chen and Greg Kinnear in “Sight” (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios)

“Sight” (2024)

Directed by Andrew Hyatt

Some language in Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2007, with flashbacks from the late 1960s to early 1980s, in the United States and in China, the dramatic biopic “Sight” (based on Ming Wang’s memoir “From Darkness to Sight”) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who has set up his own eye specialty institute in Nashville, looks back on his youth, as he struggles with financial debts and his quest to restore the vision of a blind Indian girl.

Culture Audience: “Sight” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching inspiring true medical stories that have elements of faith-based teachings.

Ben Wang and Sara Ye in “Sight” (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios)

Instead of being a collection of medical success stories from eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang, “Sight” is a sprawling, faith-based biopic of Wang. There are good performances, but about half of the movie consists of too many flashbacks to his youth. These flashbacks sometime throw the pacing off from a suspenseful part of the story that is introduced in the beginning of the film. The very beginning of the movie shows Dr. Wang taking on the challenging eyesight restoration case of a girl who was brought to him from India, after she was blinded by her stepmother.

Directed by Andrew Hyatt, “Sight” was co-written by Hyatt, John Duigan and Buzz McLaughlin. The movie is adapted from Wang’s 2016 memoir “From Darkness to Sight.” The movie’s “present day” scenes take place in 2007, while the flashback scenes range from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It can certainly be argued that the movie’s story could have been told in chronological order as a more straightforward way of presenting this movie as a biopic. However, the storytelling structure is presented in a way to drag out the suspense of whether or not a particular surgery that Ming performed will be successful or not.

The movie begins in 2007, when Ming is introduced to a patient who will change his life. Ming, who is sensitive and compassionate, is the founder of the financially struggling Wang Vision Institute, which is based in Nashville. The Wang Vision Institute was founded in 2003. In 2007, the institute is $600,000 in debt. Ming (a Chinese immigrant) is also considered an “outsider” in this American community. (“Sight” was actually filmed in Canada.)

After founding the institute, Ming took on an American business partner/mentor named Dr. Misha Bartnovsky (played by Greg Kinnear), who’s not in the movie as much as some of the marketing materials suggest because so much of the movie consists of flashbacks to Ming as a young person. Misha also has a kind personality, but he tends to be more of a realist (or pessimist) than Ming. Sometimes, Ming and Misha clash with each other because they are both very opinionated and stubborn.

Ming and Misha have an assistant named Ruth Tarik (played Natasha Mumba), who doesn’t say much in the movie and is a generic supporting character. Also seen briefly in the movie is June Bartnovsky (played by Natalie Skye), who has been married to Misha for 20 years at the point in time. Misha and June treat Ming as if he’s part of their family.

The patient who will change Ming’s life is a 5-year-old blind girl named Kajal (played by Mia SwamiNathan), an orphan from Calcutta, India. Kajal was brought to Nashville by a Catholic nun named Sister Marie (played by Fionnula Flanagan), in the hope that the Wang Vision Institute can restore Kajal’s eyesight. Sister Marie is Kajal’s guardian and approves of any surgery that Ming thinks Kajal might need.

Sister Marie tells Kajal’s tragic story: Kajal was born with eyesight, but when she was younger, Kajal was blinded by a stepmother who poured sulfuric acid in each of Kajal’s eyes. What was the motive for this heinous crime? Kajal came from a family of poor beggars who believed they could get more money from begging if they had a blind child.

Dr. Wang is immediately drawn to Kajal, who is a sweet-natured and trusting child. He wants to do everything he can to help her and begins researching unconventional ways to restore her eyesight. Dr. Bartnovsky is more cautious and advises ambitious Dr. Wang not to get his hopes up too much.

As viewers of “Sight” wait to find out the outcome of Kajal’s case, the movie takes several detours into Dr. Wang’s personal life. In his present-day life, he is shown to be an overchieving workaholic who has never been married and has no children. His immediate family members, who are also Chinese immigrants, also live in the Nashville area.

Ming’s father Zhensheng (played by Raymond Ma) and mother Alian (played by Wai Ching Ho) are proud of his accomplishments. They don’t quite feel the same about Ming’s younger brother Yu (played by Garland Chang), who still lives with his parents and is frequently unemployed. The parents’ attitude toward Yu is one of disappointment, but they don’t openly berate or insult him. They just seem to tolerate him with parental love.

Yu is one of those people who likes to come up with “get rich quck schemes” that are terrible ideas that go nowhere. In one scene, Yu says he has an idea to create a computer desktop icon that is labeled as a recycle bin instead of a trash can. Apparently, Yu is unaware that companies that make computers have already been labeling their trash can desktop icon with “recycle bin” label for decades.

Even though Ming is a bachelor who puts his work before his love life, he gets an obvious love interest in the story. One evening, he is having dinner at a restaurant bar by himself when he gives some medical assistance to a male customer who unknowingly eats too much wasabi and starts choking. The bartender on duty is a witty woman named Anle (played by Danni Wang), who notices how Ming came to the rescue and strikes up a flirty conversation with him. Ming isn’t really interested in dating anyone, but you know where this is all going, of course.

Meanwhile, after Ming meets Kajal, he tells his father that Kajal reminds him of Lili, who was Ming’s closest childhood friend when they lived in China. In the movie, Kiana Luo has the role of Lili at 8 years old, and Sara Ye portrays Lili at 14 years old. Ming then starts to have nightmares where a teenage Lili appears to him and asks Ming, “What happens when we die?”

Flashbacks show that Lili (who was the same age as Ming) and her widower father Gao (played by Peter Chan) were neighbors of Ming and his family in Hangzhou, China. In 1968, Ming was 8 years old, and his family was experiencing financial problems and could barely afford to buy food. Ming’s father Zhensheng (played by Donald Heng) was unemployed and desperate to find work. Adding to the financial stress, Ming’s mother Alian (played by Leanne Wang) found out that she was pregnant. The child born from this pregnancy would be Ming’s younger brother Yu.

In 1969, Gao experienced a medical emergency when his eyes were damaged from chemicals. As a result, Gao became blind. This incident became young Ming’s earliest motivation to become an eye doctor. It also led Ming to feel even more protective of Lili, who now had to care for her blind father.

The flashbacks in “Sight” also show that Ming ddn’t just have financial hardships in his youth. He also experienced the trauma of violence during China’s Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. This sociopolitical movement demanded that citizens be alleigient to Chinese communism at all costs.

As seen in the movie, children were often forced out of school to become oppressors in the movement. People were also kidnapped and killed. Ben Wang has the role of Ming at ages 14, 16 and 21.

The movie shows how Ming was a student at the University of Science and Technology in China, where he became a top student with an interest in laser physics. It’s a foreshadowing of the breakthrough medical procedure that Ming would later be credited with pioneering. The last flashbacks scenes in “Sight” take place in the early 1980s, when Ming continued his education in the United States, where he graduated from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology. The movie doesn’t cover his time at Harvard Medical School.

Because “Sight” shows early on that Ming is a medical doctor, the university scenes are bit too extensive, when the movie leaves it hanging for too long about what’s going to happen to eye patient Kajal. Chen and Ben Wang give very good performances as Ming in a movie that shows why the adult Ming is so stoic and afraid to express vulnerable emotions. The other performances in the movie are competent but not outstanding.

“Sight” might have a slightly jumbled story structure but the movie isn’t completely predictable. The outcome of Kajal’s medical case is very rushed toward the end of the film. Because “Sight” spends so much time on flashbacks, the movie could have benefited from showing Ming interact more with his present-day patients. Even with the movie’s flaws, “Sight” is a solid option for people who want to see a biopic about a medical hero who is not a household name but who has changed countless numbers of people’s lives for the better.

Angel Studios released “Sight” in U.S. cinemas on May 24, 2024. The movie is available for streaming to Angel Guild members.

Review: ‘I Love You, to the Moon, and Back’ (2024), starring Zhang Zifeng and Hu Xianxu

May 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

“I Love You, to the Moon, and Back”

Directed by Li Weiran

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, in 1996, the dramatic film “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” (based on the novel “Moonstruck”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two spouses in the early 20s navigate the challenges of having a long-distance marriage.

Culture Audience: “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and uncomplicated romantic dramas.

Zhang Zifeng and Hu Xianxu in “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” (Photo courtesy of Tiger Pictures Entertainment)

Just like the saying that inspired the title of this movie, “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” is a little bit outdated and old-fashioned, but it’s got enough charm to keep most viewers interested. This sweet romantic drama about a couple in a long-distance marriage has good acting performances that carry the movie when it gets repetitive and a bit dull. It’s neither heavy nor lightweight. The supporting characters are underdeveloped.

“I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” was directed by Li Weiran, who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Chi Zijan. The movie is based on Chi’s “Moonstruck” novel. Nothing controversial, daring or surprising happens in “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back,” which takes place in China in 1996. It’s the type of movie that will make some viewers bored and is best appreciated in a setting where viewers won’t have distractions.

The central characters in “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” are spouses Wang Rui (played by Hu Xianxu) and Xiushan (played by Zhang Zifeng), who are both in their early 20s. Both characters intermittently give voiceover narration in the movie. There are also some flashbacks, such as a scene that shows that Rui and Xiushan met when they both worked at the same construction site in a small town.

Rui and Xiushan have been married for about one year. Shortly after they got married, they both decided to move to bigger cities for better job opportunities. Rui chose to stay in the construction business and works for a company in Shenzhen. Xiushan works for a dumpling factory in Guangzhou, which is about 84 miles (or 135.6 kilometers) away from Shenzhen.

It’s explained early on in the movie that the couple made this compromise to have a long-distance marriage because they need to live wherever they could each find a job. Rui and Xiushan travel by train to meet up once a month at a place called the Happiness Inn. They have been trying to start a family.

Rui and Xiushan are both romantics who have different ways of expressing their love. Rui likes to bring flowers to Xiushan every time that they meet up. Xiushan likes to make their trysts at the Happiness Inn feel as much like being at home as possible, so she brings a bed blanket that reminds them of when they used to live together. Rui and Xiushan have a romantic ritual where they like to play harmonica for each other. This harmonica playing becomes a significant part of the story.

Most of “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” is about the trips back and forth that Rui and Xiushan take to see each other. Some of the movie is about the people they meet on their train trips. A drunk passenger strikes up a conversation with Rui, who tells this stranger about his long-distance marriage. The passenger tells him that long-distance relationships rarely last and that Rui’s wife is probably cheating on him.

Rui gets even more insecure about the relationship when he surprises Xiushan for an unannounced visit. She isn’t at her home, which she shares with two co-workers. The younger co-worker jokes that Xiushan is probably out on a date. But Rui thinks she isn’t joking and gets worried about what Xiushan is doing when they are apart.

Zhang and Hu give solid performances as this likeable newlywed couple during the ups and downs of the marriage. The movie’s biggest deficiency is that it doesn’t show much about who else is in this couple’s lives, such as friends or family members. Still, if viewers are looking for a harmless and somewhat sentimental romantic story, “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” is an adequate option.

Tiger Pictures Entertainment released “I Love You, to the Moon, and Back” in select U.S. cinemas on May 24, 2024. The movie was released in China on May 1, 2024.