MOTHERLAND
Written & Directed by Doris Yeung
Produced by Taro Goto
USA. 93 min. Not Rated
With Françoise Yip, Kenneth Tsang & Byron Mann
 

Director Doris Yeung’s debut film portrays a lonely protagonist confronting lies and injustice as she uncovers the mystery behind her mother’s violent death. The film was inspired by Yeung’s experience of her own mother being murdered while she was living abroad, and many scenes are pulled from actual circumstances. Unfortunately, not all of the threads of this ambitious film quite hold together.

Raffi Tang, a young Chinese-American woman, has settled abroad. Her idyllic life in rustic Mexico is disrupted by news of her mother’s murder back home. She promptly gets on the first plane to San Francisco. Here the other characters are introduced—Raffi’s wealthy father (Kenneth Tsang), who was in the middle of a vicious legal battle with her mother; a lawyer who advises Raffi to settle with her father; a mysterious family friend (Bryon Mann), who seems romantically interested in Raffi; and a sloppy detective investigating the case. Raffi’s relationship with her father appears to be strained. Since divorcing her mother, he has remarried a much younger woman. Now, Raffi has a sister at least 25 years younger than her.

Raffi goes through the funeral arrangements and lawyers’ meetings in a daze—she needs closure, to understand who killed her mother and why. In Raffi’s moment of grief, we see how the funeral organizers are vultures well versed in making money through the business of death. This scene, treated flatly, drives home the fact that Raffi has no one to share her sorrow with. Through the scenes that ensue, we realize that Raffi had broken ties with her mother, who was upset that her daughter was in a relationship with another woman. Now Raffi feels remorse at having abandoned her mother.

Ultimately, Raffi gets the answers she needs, but the many facts left dangling leave the story incomplete and not convincing. The conflict between the parents isn’t articulated well, nor is the nature of her relationship with her father. Her uncle poignantly chokes up as he laments the futility of the “American Dream,” how his sister left her homeland to chase riches in a land where she had no friends or family and ended up dead. But this critical theme doesn’t appear to resonate with the other characters.

Though noir-ish in content, the film’s style is straightforward and the pace slow, with overly simplistic dialogue. Though most of the drama unfolds indoors, the camera captures some airy shots of the Bay Area—much needed breathers in an otherwise claustrophobic film. As Raffi, Françoise Yip looks beautiful, but her wooden performance makes it difficult to empathize with her. However, she comes to life when, in the climax, she vents her anger toward her father. Though its theme is relevant to the many immigrants chasing a better life, the film’s weaknesses undermine any sort of questioning. Preeti Mankar
March 18, 2011