Mr. Shi is a widower and a retired man from Beijing. When Yilan, his only daughter who lives in the US, has a divorce, he decides to visit her in the small town where she works as a librarian. His intention is to stay with her until he helps her recover from the trauma. He is a “rocket scientist”, Mr. Shi likes to tell people he meets in America, and enjoys their attention. But Yilan acts less enthusiastic in his show-off, nor is she interested in his plan to rescue her marriage and reconstruct her life. When Mr. Shi persists in finding out the reason for the divorce, Yilan starts to avoid him. Disappointed but not discouraged, Mr. Shi explores the small town and meets an old woman, Madam, who fled the Iranian Revolution to the US. Neither Mr. Shi nor Madam speak English well, but by gesturing and talking in their own tongues, Mr. Shi and Madam start a rare friendship, in which they find momentary haven from the world of lies they have to weave to keep themselves hopeful. But the friendship is soon disrupted when Madam’s son sends her away to a retirement home. Facing revelations both from Madam and Yilan’s confrontation that Mr. Shi has never been prepared to face, he finally accepts things as they are, and reaches a small understanding with Yilan and her life.
Wayne Wang is a key figure in the development of independent filmmaking, alternating
major Hollywood studio films such as THE JOY LUCK CLUB with smaller, independent
work like SMOKE. Continuing to work in the two different worlds, Wang
directed an independent digital film, THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, with Molly Parker
and Peter Sarsgaard, followed by Sony/Revolution’s hit comedy MAID IN MANHATTAN
with Jennifer Lopez. His most recent effort, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, based on the
children’s novel by Kate DiCamilo, opened in 2005. His latest Hollywood film, LAST
HOLIDAY, with Queen Latifah and Gerard Depardieu, was loosely based on a 1950
J.B. Priestly film of the same name.
Yilan / FAYE YU /// Mr. Shi / HENRY O /// Madam / VIDA GHAHREMANI /// Boris / PASHA LYCHNIKOFF
DIRECTOR / WAYNE WANG /// SCRIPTWRITER / YIYUN LI /// BASED ON THE SHORT STORY BY YIYUN LI /// EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS / YASUSHI KOTANI, TAIZO SON /// PRODUCERS / YUKIE KITO, RICH COWAN, WAYNE WANG /// CINEMATOGRAPHER / PATRICK LINDENMAIER /// EDITOR / DEIRDRE SLEVIN /// PRODUCTION DESIGNER / VINCENT DE FELICE /// CASTING / TODD THALER, PHILIP HUFFMAN /// MUSIC SUPERVISORS / DEVA ANDERSON, DELPHINE ROBERTSON /// MUSIC / LESLEY BARBER /// A PRODUCTION OF GOOD PRAYERS /// PRODUCTION PRESENTATION BY ENTERTAINMENT FARM
FORMAT
35 mm / 1:1,85 /
Colour / Dolby Digital ///
LENGTH
83 mins ///
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE
English, Mandarin,
Farsi ///
SUBTITLES
English
