Direction: Cathy Yan
Country: China / USA
Signaling a remarkable debut feature for the Chinese writer/director Cathy Yan (she is best known for her sophomore film, Birds of Prey), Dead Pigs is a caustic, dynamic and often hilarious comedy with a strong social bite. Its story, inspired by the real 2013 Huangpu River dead pigs incident, races with high energy and oozes a delicious humor that satisfies throughout.
At the center of the action, we have Old Wang (Haoyu Yang), an unfortunate pig farmer who desperately needs money to pay his mob creditors. His fearless and intractable sister, Candy (Vivian Wu is magnificent), is a beauty salon owner who stubbornly refuses to leave the old family house where she was born, which is being targeted by an insatiable Chinese real estate corporation. This company boasts an enthusiastic American architect, Sean Landry (David Rysdahl), as the champion of its financial interests.
Old Wang’s son, Wang Zhen (Mason Lee), is a busboy who sends every penny earned to his father, pretending he’s a successful businessman. He falls in love with Xia Xia (Meng Li), a wealthy young woman who finds out that her father is dating with her best friend.
Economic inequality and critical social gaps, modernization and gentrification, emotional dilemmas and complex family relationships, all these aspects are funneled into a system of satirical criticism, in a fluid, funny film that also plays with visual flamboyance, a relevant soundtrack, and cunning acting to make its point.
