Gave this a look on a flight from Taiwan to the states the other day and glad I did. Yao Huang is a great actress. She says a lot without saying too much. She took me back to being a teenager, all the danger and the rush and confusion. Hong Kong society fascinates me, and the place looks amazing on camera. The Crossing is a window into a world and a crazy time of life. Worth a look.

The movie talks about crime of smuggling that happened in real life. The directing and acting of the movie are both amazing. There is a scene that Pei Pei's father being with his own family. He saw his daughter and there is sadness in his face that he could not meet her at the moment and back to fake happiness with his own family. The cinematography of a car driving scene with Hong Kong City reflection on the windows is beautiful. Maybe because of female directing, the feeling and burning intimacy of both characters in a hot room is captured beautifully. Chicken soup for the soul: Never trust a man. Both daughter and mother get hurt by trusting a man and rely on each other in the end after Pei Pei being caught by the police. There is no snow in Hong Kong, but let's truly experience from what is in the Hong Kong.

Checking on the Manchester HOME cinema website for listings of what they would soon be screening, I found out they were hosting an online Chinese Cinema Season. Finding two obscure titles in the line-up,I got set to make the crossing.

View on the film:

Following the coming of age of Peipei (played by a great Yao Huang in her debut role,with Huang blending youthful enthusiasm with a naive vulnerability) as she smuggles iPhones in order to raise funds to go on holiday with her pal and see snow in Japan, debut writer/director Xue Bai & cinematographer Songri Piao keep close to Peipei with excellent, filmed on location tracking shots which take Peipei into the underworld side-streets.

Separating Peipei between living in Shenzhen (a port city of China) and studying in Hong Kong, the screenplay by Bai makes things pretty clear which side of the crossing it leans on,with China keeping the long arm of the law held firm, that acts as a contrast to the crime-ridden streets of Hong Kong filled with rebellious youth.

In the middle of the political element supporting the straight and narrow, Bai smuggles in under Peipei's maturing a sharp aside on consumer-driven society, with Peipei wanting something that money can't buy, (seeing snow) whilst all those around her scramble for every shiny objects, which reflects the merciless grinding machine of an economy that leaves the likes of Peipei with no where to turn to but crime,as Peipei takes the crossing.