She, a Chinese (2010)

4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Multicultural England

FrankIV from , 7th July, 2010

I can understand the frustration of the reviewer who didn't find much here to enjoy, but amidst the general air of apathy and gloom, there are some points of real interest. Firstly, the focus on the Chinese girl and her experiences in London gives us a chance to see the lives we lead from a different perspective, and it has quite a disorientating effect at times. Secondly, the 'old guy' she marries is Geoffrey Hutchings who died recently and whose notices in the papers, at least the redtops, described him as 'The Man from Benidorm'. He was, of course, much more than that, and here's a chance to see how versatile he was. Mention must also be made of the lead actress, who, I thought, was very good, and the writing which created a character for whom you feel ambiguous - annoyed, as the previous reviewer says, by her apathy and general negativity, but sorry for her plight. Actually, the more I write about it, the more I like it - I'll stop now.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

Plodding nowhere

mk2009 from , 1st July, 2010

The film plods along never really going anywhere; there is no character development and a flimsy disengaging story line. The main pragmatist Mei hardly speaks and when she does have dialogue it’s obvious and boring. Then back to silent glumness, nothing really happens. The plot is really basic: Mei lives in a small village with no prospects and a nagging mother, man in truck who visits the cafe she hangs around watching pool tables for change van guy takes her to the movies once...the second time to a field to rape her, this motivates Mei to move away. Mei and her boring silent friend find work in a sweatshop style clothes factory, Mei gets fired probably because she doesn’t have the energy to sew...the apathy and lethargy is annoying. Then she walks down the street passes a salon; or what she thinks is a hair salon...it’s a brothel. Mei befriends/sleeps with a fighter for hire he gets stabbed and dies....he has thousands of yen under his mattress (convenient!)...Mei uses dead fighter guys money to travel to London.. Works in a Chinese massage herbal place ...old guy likes her marries her after like 1 week she lives with him but shags the curry man down the road...gets pregnant walks around London alone. The end is Mei walking around homeless looking in London?? Oh I forgot Mei also eats an ice lolly and does a bit of karaoke. I would not recommend

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