Chinas

Superbly acted by all, including the little girls at the centre of the story, well directed and engaging to the end.

The clash of cultural traditions resulting in parental expectations constrain the ability of the young Chinese girl and her teenager sister to fit in their new environment as much as they could and want to. The shopkeeper parents' struggle to provide materially is a thread through the movie. Their apparent motivation behind migrating is to give their daughters a better life is stated, but their inability to let go of the cultural constraints hampers the daughters' starting their new life. The teenage daughter is an illustration of trying hard to fit into a new culture while being caught up in the wrong crowd to boot.

The parallel family of intellectuals who adopted a Chinese girl are stressed out while insisting on keeping her in both cultures, not necessarily to her satisfaction.

Full of pain and frustration, but a sociography and not a tearjerker, a movie well worth watching.