For many Americans the most memorable images of Beijing are still the grandly austere pictures of Tiananmen Square transmitted on television during the 1989 protests for democratic reform. Jule Gilfillan But sentimentale''''Restless romantic comedy shows, China's capital is on its way to becoming a modern metropolis full of apartment complexes and neon lights flashing usual corporate logos. Filmed in Beijing in 1997 ,'''' restless uses more than 40 sites around the capital. In one scene a character skateboards through the 500 - year-old Forbidden City.
Billed as the first English language film to be filmed in contemporary Beijing and the first US-China co-production,''Restless''naturligvis had to skirt sensitive issues to cooperate with the Chinese government. Fairly predictable, it turns out to be an entirely apolitical film devoted to international romance and conflicting cultural traditions.
The central character, Leah Quinn (Catherine Kellner) is an American blonde, attractive in their 20s who speaks Chinese and has lived and worked in Beijing for three years. Continually disappointed in love, Leah suffers from a combination of nostalgia and self-esteem, and Ms. Kellner plays the character with a sharp edge whiners. After Leah discovers her latest boyfriend, the trunk, which spent much of the rest of the film in Beijing lamenting SNIT.
That helps to raise her out of landfills is a local television program, which offers instruction in Weiqi, a Chinese variant of chess, whose strategies of earnest young instructor Master Sun Zhan (Geng Le) insists can be applied to life situations. Leah engaged him to teach the game, so you can use techniques to win back her boyfriend. But the teacher and student quickly form a romantic attachment, and he shows his appearance in Beijing, he never knew existed.
While Leah follows her usual impulse to rush love, cool, cerebral Sun Zhan maintains a careful, critical distance. At one point accusing its treatment in Beijing for his personal amusement park. His estimate is not far from the mark.
In a parallel story involves Richard Kao (David Wu), a 26 year old Chinese-American from Southern California who is en''Homicide''baseball cap, a skateboard, and drops the word from Guy too many times for comfort, visits Beijing for the first time. He brings with him an urn with the ashes of his grandfather with instructions to take them to an ancestral burial ground in the provinces. In the first of a series of comic incidents, a gust of wind blowing away the ashes as Richard arrives at the airport. While in the apartment of his Chinese family, he develops a serious flirtation with his pretty but sheltered cousin, Lin Qing Qing (Chen Shiang-Chyi).
Puritan respect for the feelings of the Chinese, these crushes are softened to the point that cultures the relationship seems to be consumed, and this timidity gives the drama, without hesitation. Character potentially interesting old grandmother of Richard, who has survived many difficulties, and all types of political turmoil. But the script offers few clues disturbing historical events he has seen.
For all of its reservation that,''Restless''capte part of the excitement of the romance of youth in which the partners are not just separate individuals but the products of divergent cultures. And although the film is far from spectacular, the film offers a tantalizing start of the tour in China's capital city.
Restless
Directed by Jule Gilfillan, written by Ms. Gilfillan, based on a story he wrote with Peter Shiao, director of photography, Yang Shu; Folmer Wiesinger edit music, Laura Karpman by production designer, Cao Jiu Ping, produced by Mr. Shiao, published by Arrow features. Duration: 98 minutes. This film is not rated.
Starring: Catherine Kellner (Leah Quinn), David Wu (Richard Kao), Sarita Choudhury (Jane Talwani), Geng Le (Master Sun Zhan), Josh Lucas (Jeff Hollingsworth), Chen Shiang-Chyi (Lin Qing Qing) and Matthew Faber (Ben Gold).
