Video begins with outgoing Festival Director Rob Buscher's opening remarks and handing the reigns over to incoming Festival Director Selena Yip
Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview - @GoBacktoChinaFilm
features Sasha Li, a wealthy, Asian American young woman (Anna Akana) fresh out of Los Angeles Fashion School and half-heartedly trying to land a job, but knowing Daddy (Richard Ng) is paying for her spacious apartment and expensive clothes makes it less imperative that something come through right away - that is until her credit card gets declined while treating her friends to a night out. She then finally checks in with her father who's been trying to reach her for weeks. He lays down the decree that neither she nor Sasha's mother (Kelly Hu) (divorced) will receive another cent from him unless Sasha agrees to come to China and work in her father's toy factory business for an entire year!
Needless to say, his plan is the equivalent of Hell for this spoiled princess, but with an impending eviction and her mother's livelihood at stake, she agrees. The film soon becomes a coming of age tale, as Sasha has to re-acclimate herself to Communist China, the language, which she can understand but not speak; become acquainted with half siblings as her father has children from 3 different women; learn a business she has no interest in, and navigate what's always been a distant relationship with her father.
Based on Ting's own life, the ingredients make for a truly enjoyable film - Sasha becomes so lovable, the IRL China factory experience makes a unique setting and the pacing is spot on! Netflix should pick this one up.
See Q&A with Emily Ting interviewed (video below) w/ NBC10 Philadelphia 's Denise Nakano
