Fujian Blue

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Movie: Fujian Blue
Chinese: 金碧輝煌
Director: Weng Shou Ming
Writer: Chen Tao, Lin Yi Le
Producer: Zhang Xian Min, Weng Xiu Ping, Kondo Teiko, Lin Fan
Cinematographer Hai Tao, Shang Yi, Wang Yan
Release Date: 2007
Runtime: 91 min
Language: Mandarin
Country: China

Plot

"The whole world fears Fujian!” announces a TV pundit, commenting on the notoriety of China’s southeastern province as the country’s centre for illegal emigration and human trafficking. Shot on locations in Fujian’s coastal towns and on Pingtan Island in the Taiwan Strait, with a cast of non-professionals playing characters very much like themselves, Robin Weng’s pin-sharp debut feature shows exactly why and how so many young Chinese pay to have themselves smuggled in containers to countries in the West. The social and economic reasons for the exodus won’t surprise anyone, but the film brings them alive in a way no one has done before.

The film tells two overlapping stories, the first about "Amerika" and his delinquent friends in the town of Fuqing, the second about their friend Dragon who’s from Pingtan and is thinking of buying his way out of the country. The kids in Part One are rowdy hedonists who pay for their jollies by blackmailing women who have affairs while their husbands are abroad; their endless high comes crashing to earth once they’ve targeted Amerika’s own clueless mother. Dragon in Part Two has an elder brother who’s managed to get into Ireland; his own dreams of emigrating by any means necessary are dashed when he loses a large sum of cash, but his family goes into massive debt to buy him an illegal passage. Weng tells both stories vividly, with maximum concision and awesome energy. The result is smarter and more insightful than a month of news reports. -- VIFF