A FAMILY TOUR
Irish Premiere
Director: Ying Liang
107 minutes. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia. 2018. Subtitled. Colour. D-Cinema.
Official Selection, Locarno, Busan, Hamburg, 2018; New York Film Festival 2018. Winner: Netpac Award, Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas, 2018.
Chinese writer-filmmaker Ying Liang’s first film since his acclaimed When Night Falls (2012), is a semi-autobiographical account of filmmaker Yang Shu, exiled in Hong Kong with her young son and husband, having made a subversive film that offended the Chinese authorities. Her mother Xiaolin who lives in Sichuan in China, has a relapse of an old illness requiring urgent surgery. Wishing to see her daughter and her family before this, they arrange to meet in Taiwan. Xiaolin travels under the tightly regulated schedule of an organised sightseeing tour of Taipei. Yang Shu and her family check into the same hotel, and follow the tour group to various scenic locations. With a radiant cast, this is a tender and heart-wrenching reflection on freedom and personal choice.
Ying Liang (b. 1977 in Shanghai, China) lives in Hong Kong and teaches at the Academy for Performing Arts. His debut feature, Taking Father Home (2005) won awards at Tokyo, Hong Kong and San Francisco International Film Festivals. His films include The Other Half (2006); Good Cats (2008), When Night falls (2012).
