The Chinese immigrant film "Under the Big Green Tree" starring Gui Yalei was released online on March 15
Reporting by journalist Maggie Ma los Angeles
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The film "Beneath the Banyan Tree", led by Golden Horse actress Gui Yalei and co-starring Hong Kong actress Kathy Wu, will officially meet the audience on March 15 on Amazon, Apple TV, VUDU and other online on-demand platforms. Through the different perspectives of three generations and four people in a family, the film explores the story of the integration of Chinese immigrant families into American life.
Directed and written by rookie director Nani Li Yang, the film won the "Visionary Award" at the North American film festival "CINEQUEST" last year; the Best Screenplay Award at the Paris International Film Festival and the International Best Actor Award at the "Dances With Films" Film Festival Competition Features）。
In the film, the mother played by Gui Yalei came to the United States to join her daughter, and at first she thought that her daughter was a writer overseas, but she did not expect to find that she was engaged in tour guide work. Moreover, the mother is also dissatisfied with her daughter's boyfriend and life style, and insists on introducing her boyfriend. The daughter prefers that her mother can give her independent space and freedom. The story describes the family's touching journey from contradiction and incomprehension to re-acquaintance and acceptance of each other in a strange new environment. The mother-daughter relationship starring Gui Yalei and Wu Jiaxing is sincere, and the film also has many interesting and life-like dialogues, comprehensively describing the real encounters of new immigrant families in the United States.
Born in Dali, Yunnan Province, Yang Quan studied engineering in China, but because he liked movies since childhood, he went abroad and obtained a master's degree in film production from the New York Film Academy (often referred to as NYFA), and now lives in Los Angeles. She said that "Under the Big Green Tree" is based on her personal experience, and once she had a falling out with her family in order to pursue her film dream, because it was very different from her parents' original plan for her. However, after she successfully went abroad to pursue her dreams and had more contact with immigrant elders in her life, she became more and more aware of her family's concerns and the way they expressed their love and worries through chatting with these elders. Yang Quan said: "When writing the script, I originally started from the perspective of my daughter, but the more I wrote, the more I could understand my mother's mood and worries. ”
Yang Quan said that she wants to show the most common contradictions and life experiences in Chinese immigrant families through this family, truly reflecting everyone's different perspectives, and the need to resolve conflicts between relatives with love and communication. She said: "Parents and children in Chinese families are more ashamed to express love directly, and if communication is not done properly, it will escalate the contradictions, so I hope that my film can also show the importance of communication." At the same time, I also hope to explore the contradiction between the expectations of parents and the self-pursuit of their children, many Chinese parents hope that their children can choose a more stable job, but the personal pursuit of young people can not be ignored. Young people should also understand the starting point and painstaking intentions of their parents.
Gui Yalei, who plays her mother in the film, should be familiar with her 1993 film "Wedding Banquet" with Ang Lee, and won the 30th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards for Best Supporting Actress. Her famous work is to play Lu Yiping in the Qiong Yao drama "Smoke and Rain", and won the Best Actress of the 16th Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Best Actress of the 8th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards with "Home in Taipei". In 2008, she won the Best Supporting Actress at the 29th Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Film for her film "The Ballad of Yun Shui". Wu Jiaxing, who starred as her daughter, won the 2007 Miss Asia USA division, starred in the Hollywood action film "Skyscraper" in 2018, and cooperated with Aaron Kwok in the 2020 film "McRough man".
Yang Qu admitted that she has always been a loyal fan of Gui Yalei, and when writing the script, she regarded Gui Yalei as the best person to play her mother, and finally she could get Gui Yalei's consent to give her the courage to complete the film. Gui Yalei said that she initially felt like participating in the script, and saw that there was a group of young people behind the film who loved movies and were very persistent and responsible, hoping to work with them. Wu Jiaxing, who played her daughter, said that it was a great honor to work with Gui Yalei, who learned a lot from the latter, and playing the role of this daughter also made her very resonant, and she was also full of guilt for her parents like a role. She said: "The role of Teacher Gui Yalei is really very similar to my mother, and my mother thought that when she watched this film, she was using the two of us as a template, which shows that the script is very close to life." ”
The film has also been delayed due to the impact of the epidemic, but fortunately it will be available for viewing through multiple online on-demand platforms on March 15. Yang Quan said that half of the film is Chinese, but the actors perform well, the story is representative, and finally won the recognition of multiple film festivals and American distributors, which also shows that they believe that such films have a certain market and potential.