When You Need A Reminder of How Much You Love Your Kids, Watch Amazon's Expats
Hong Kong is unlike Singapore: it has uncertainty, chaos and tragedy.
In the beginning, you don't expect much from Amazon's “Expats.”
You look at Nicole Kidman's frozen face, and wonder, “Could it be Botox? Her 3-year old kid, Gus, has gone missing in the Temple Street Night Market and she looks frozen stiff?”
The first 2 episodes of Lulu Wang's new series shows the shiny gleam of Hong Kong's frozen expat bubble — Michelin-starred restaurants, condos on the Peak, and chauffeured Teslas.
Only in the middle, do you realise the surprising talent of Lulu Wang. It explodes unexpectedly, like a falling in love. This is a breakthrough for the Asian American director, a big step from “The Farewell,” her charming Awkwafina comedy.
“Expats” comes fully alive when you least expect it, in Episode 5. This stands on its own as a full-fledged movie about the immigrants in Hong Kong, all hustle, hope and native despair. Strangely, it bursts into full, racuous bloom when Ms Wang swivels her lens onto the Filipino helpers on the margins of “Expats.”
In the end, Ms Kidman's frozen face finally makes sense. It isn't Botox. She is frozen in grief. The unbearable pain of her tragedy means she is frozen in time, unable to move on from Hong Kong.
The selfishness of her best friend, Hilary, also finally makes sense. Hillary returns to India to tell her father, just before his major surgery, that she hates him. He doesn’t survive the surgery. She returns to Hong Kong, crying to her husband, “I killed my father.”
The girl who loses Gus in the night market is called Mercy. She is pregnant, too. Is there resolution for her at the end? She is speaking to Ms Kidman's calm, sad character in a restaurant.
“Did we think we were immune to tragedy?” Ms Kidman says. This is her way of forgiving Mercy.
Mercy makes an unbelievable offer of sacrifice, a la reverse Rumpelstiltskin. This is her way of atonement.
Above it all, is Ms Wang's cinematic, whirling vision of tragedy. That we are not immune, that fault is not easy to pinpoint, guilt is forever, and most of all, we can only pray for God's mercy.
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