LILTING (2014) Hong Khaou

A film about cultural barriers was really the last thing I was interested in. And I'm very sorry that my fears were confirmed. After ten minutes, I started thinking, " Can this be nothing more than a watered-down version of The Wedding Banquet ? " I wasn't wrong.

The story is simple enough and very contemporary. The Chinese-Cambodian mother of a perfectly integrated gay boy is in a nursing home. Her son was killed in a car accident, and her boyfriend ( whom the mother knows nothing about ) is trying to get together with her. And you ask yourself: “ But why? ” Okay, you've lost your young partner and you're devastated, but why base the entire film and your existence on that woman's mysterious desire to be accepted? The old lady doesn't speak English, has never tried to integrate, and knows nothing about her son's homosexuality, so why go so far as to hire an interpreter at your own expense to give him the chance to converse with his drooling, andropause-prone suitor?

The cinematography is beautiful ( I only discovered after seeing it that it won an award at Sundance ) and the settings are evocative: it would be the perfect direction for a light-hearted film rather than one with political and social implications. It fails to be intimate and sentimental, nor a denunciation of cultural barriers. It remains simply a well-shot depiction of obstacles.