Despite the help of her kind-hearted flatmate, Cai (Yue Gai-huan), things don’t work out. Her plan is to get a legitimate job and eventually secure a Thai passport.
But the determined young woman has bigger ideas. He wants Lianqing to follow him into a textile factory where no questions are asked. With very little dialogue, Z paints a clinical picture of how the desperation of those fleeing conflict and poverty and the opportunism of corrupt officials perpetuates the people smuggling trade.Ĭlearly attracted to his traveling companion, Guo makes stumbling romantic moves once they hit the capital. The only part of Burma seen here is a riverbank on the Thai border where strangers Lianqing (Wu) and Guo (Kai) are ferried to the other side and packed into a van bound for Bangkok. The film’s title may conjure all sorts of exotic notions, but the reality is something very different. 9.Ī good example of a filmmaker who’s stuck to his task and steadily improved with each outing, Z has weeded out the overlong shots and plot meanderings that crept into his early features “Return to Burma” and “Poor Folk.” Following his big leap forward with “Ice Poison,” Midi Z has now delivered a tightly edited and emotionally rewarding drama that places him in the top rank of Asian social realists. Taiwan and Hong Kong theatrical release is set for Dec. Very well performed by Z’s regular actress Wu Ke-xi and established Taiwanese star Kai Ko (“You Are the Apple of My Eye”), “The Road to Mandalay” is bound to travel far and wide on the fest circuit following a prestigious hat-trick of selections in Venice, Toronto, and Busan. Taiwan-based Burmese filmmaker Midi Z produces his best work yet with “The Road to Mandalay.” Returning to narrative features after the documentaries “Jade Miners” and “City of Jade,” Z maintains his focus on Burmese exiles with a low-key, high-impact love story about two illegal immigrants with very different ideas about making money and starting a new life in Bangkok.
0 kommentar(er)
