Foreign Moon
Directed by Zhang Zeming
Starring Vicky Chen Hsiao-hsuen, Harrison Liu and Chen Daming
Opens nationally at Dendy Cinemas on October 23
Review by Eva Cheng
According to an old Chinese saying, the moon in foreign countries is particularly round and bright. The assumption is that the more appealing moon is found only in lands materially more developed than China.
While science later established that there is only one moon, the saying's popularity didn't diminish, except it is now used to reflect a new reality.
Before the 1949 revolution, feudal tyranny, foreign invasions, war and poverty fuelled the desires of many to leave China. Today, millions in China today still aspire to a foreign dreamland and many are actively trying to get out. Most of those who eventually make it are better connected (they have helpful relatives overseas or are part of, or close to, the ruling bureaucracy), have sufficient resources to bribe their way out, or are among the better educated minority. Foreign Moon portrays the reality of the lives of a few of those "lucky" ones.
The story is situated in London, around 20-year-old Lan Lan (Vicky Chen), university educated in China. She managed to get out through the sponsorship of an indirectly acquainted rich Chinese family, naively believing that the family would accommodate her and pay for her flute lessons, for no clear favour in return. Within hours of arriving, she learns about the deal. The father wants her to, in time, marry his son.
The next morning, with limited English and knowing nearly no one in London, Lan Lan leaves her sponsor, apparently unworried about her little money or survival skills. While this kind of naive confidence often comes from a more privileged upbringing, it doesn't help Lan Lan find food and shelter. She rules out going back to China because to do so, in the absence of obvious achievements, would be an enormous loss of face. After all, everybody was jealous that she had managed to leave.
Her only hope lies with the phone number given to her by a Chinese man, Su Tong (Harrison Liu), whom she met at the station and who, out of charity, escorted her to her sponsor.
Having arrived from China some years earlier, Su could see Lan Lan's difficulties. In solidarity, he helps her to find a job and accommodation. Lan Lan still wants to pursue her music, but is in danger of losing her place in the institute unless she finds a huge sum before the end of term.
To help Lan Lan out Su proposes to run a Chinese take-away illegally from his flat, in collaboration with her and his flatmate, Deng Lin (Chen Daming), also from China. Lan Lan moves in and the three cook, sleep and live in a very small space. And every now and then, Lan Lan and Su have to move out when Chen, a playboy, spends a few hours with his latest girlfriend.
Lan Lan and Su hold more "traditional" Chinese moral standards, but Lan Lan's affection for Su grows, though she restrains herself from openly expressing it. Su also tries to conceal his feelings for her, apparently because he is still trying to bring his wife and young son out of China. Lan Lan has to move out after Deng attempts to rape her. Su and Chen have a fight, and Su leaves without informing Lan Lan of his whereabouts.
To continue her education, Lan Lan agrees to marry the son of her sponsor. Just before the marriage, Lan Lan manages to track down Su and visits him at his hut in a car-wrecking yard. They spend some intimate, but painful, time together, after which they get on with their separate lives.
The limited options and lack of control that the three main characters have over their lives stand out. For them, as for most Third World migrants, the most readily available means of making a living are the dirtiest, hardest and most uncreative jobs — such as delivering newspapers, child-minding or working in a restaurant or sweatshop. These constraints do not surprise such migrants in an imperialist country, particularly those with a limited grasp of the language of the host country.
A knowledge of the broad problems of Chinese society, which form the background to their lives, is taken for granted. Those problems, such as the utter puritanism and control during Mao's era (from which Su came) and the continuing corruption today (why Su's wife's visa application is continually frustrated), cropped up throughout the story.
Foreign Moon does not touch on the racism which is a core part of British society.
The very limited opportunity for such migrants to live a creative life weaves the story together: The love between Lan Lan and the much older Su may not even have happened if each had had more options.
Foreign Moon is a very Chinese movie, down to earth, well produced and well worth seeing.