A good movie

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick (it was even included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list), I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I don’t think that the story was really so original. For example, back in the 90’s, Ang Lee got his breakthough with ‘Xi yan’ which was about a gay Asian guy living in New York who tries to marry some girl just to please his parents still living in Hong Kong. Still, Lulu Wang did direct a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed the sad and nostalgic approach. Indeed, what is at the centre of this tale is not really the lie to the grandmother but how the main character is torn apart between two vastly different cultures. As a result, she is in fact seriously disoriented and doesn’t belong anywhere, neither in China or in the USA. Another thing that impressed me with this movie was the pitch-perfect performance by Awkwafina. I mean, I had seen a couple of movies with her and she can be indeed really funny but it was pretty neat to see her turn down her comedic skills (and usual hysteria) and deliver such a solid dramatic performance. I wish that they did develop more her relationship with the other characters but this approach did make sense though. Indeed, the main character had spent so many years abroad that, even though she knows her relatives, she never really managed to build a bond with them, except with her grandmother. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a really solid drama, perfectly showing how alienating it can be to be bicultural, and it is definitely worth a look.