A gripping crime story with bits of social commentary.
Here we have portraits of two types of parents -- the seemingly good ones who overindulge their children, and the glossier ones distracted by high-powered careers.
Set in Thailand among Mandarin speakers, this beautifully photographed film tells the story of Weijie (Yang Xiao), who tries to clean up after his daughter (Audrey Hui) is exploited by the son of a mayor and police chief (Joan Chen).
"It's Dad's fault. I should have protected you," he tells Ping Ping.
The film creates great suspense and character interest. However, the bad guys could have been drawn more subtly. Ms. Chen's shades-wearing cop is leavened a bit by a hallucination of her son, but too much of the time she's a demonic stick figure.
There's interesting animal imagery here. When a shellshocked Ping Ping is led from class, her teacher is speaking of "sheep with poor eyes (that) can easily stray. So they are often eaten by large animals."
And how. We want to protect our children, but are we, really?
Here we have portraits of two types of parents -- the seemingly good ones who overindulge their children, and the glossier ones distracted by high-powered careers.
Set in Thailand among Mandarin speakers, this beautifully photographed film tells the story of Weijie (Yang Xiao), who tries to clean up after his daughter (Audrey Hui) is exploited by the son of a mayor and police chief (Joan Chen).
"It's Dad's fault. I should have protected you," he tells Ping Ping.
The film creates great suspense and character interest. However, the bad guys could have been drawn more subtly. Ms. Chen's shades-wearing cop is leavened a bit by a hallucination of her son, but too much of the time she's a demonic stick figure.
There's interesting animal imagery here. When a shellshocked Ping Ping is led from class, her teacher is speaking of "sheep with poor eyes (that) can easily stray. So they are often eaten by large animals."
And how. We want to protect our children, but are we, really?