Gua Sha, The Treatment
dir Zheng Xiaolong
scr Wang Xiaoping, Mark Byers, Huo Bingquan, Xue Jiahua
with Tony Leung Ka Tai, Jiang Wenli, Dennis Zhu, Zhu Xu, Hollis Huston, Tamara Tungate, Joseph Erker, Jane Johnson, Alexander Barton
release St Louis Film Fest Nov.00
00/US-China 2h00 2 out of 5 stars
Review by Rich Cline
Gua Sha had its world premiere at the St Louis International Film Festival
A compelling tale of culture clash in middle America, Gua Sha centres on a young Chinese couple (Leung and Jiang) who immigrate to St Louis with their bright young son (Zhu), who they're raising to be a proper American. Then a doctor treating the boy for a minor bump notices strange scarring on his back, social services step in to protect the child and a legal battle ensues, dragging the parents through the courts to prove them as abusive and neglectful, which of course they're not. The marks are from an ancient (and painless) Chinese medical treatment called gua sha.

OK, so it's not much more than a made-for-TV premise, and the filmmaking is pretty tame in many respects, tracing the obvious melodramatic storyline from the family's delirious happiness through the most bleak darkness imaginable. First-time director Zheng has an excellent technical crew behind him, but the performances are extremely uneven (the Asian cast is superb; most Yanks seem like they're from a local amateur theatre group). And finally, the cheesy musical score combines with overwrought plot points to alienate Western viewers, leaving us quite intrigued by the themes and story possibilities, but disappointed by the film itself.

[themes, language] 2.Nov.00

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