This slow-burn drama with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot follows the ups and downs of a young Burmese-Chinese woman fleeing poverty in Myanmar to work illegally in Thailand. It’s an intensely moving film with a heart-and-soul lead performance by Ke-Xi Wu as Lianqing. Wu’s face barely moves, but her eyes register Lianqing’s feelings moment to moment, from the vertigo of homesickness at the start to her steely determination to make a better life in Thailand. The movie begins with Lianqing handing over her family’s life savings to people smugglers. On the journey she meets Guo (Kai Ko), a sweet guy who unselfishly takes her place in the boot of the Jeep (he has paid extra for a seat). When they reach Bangkok, Guo gets a job at his cousin’s textile factory while Lianqing works 14-hour days washing dishes. Their relationship is sweetly innocent. But director Midi Z (whose own siblings left Burma to live as migrant workers in Thailand) offers no happy endings – just bleak reality. His film registers the texture of life so precisely. Compassionate and honestly told, it is a real empathy machine of a movie. And, of course, you can’t watch it without thinking of the desperate plight of Burma’s Rohingya Muslims.
