Kinamand
Directed by:
Henrik Ruben GenzScreenplay:
Kim Fupz AakesonCinematography:
Sebastian BlenkovCast:
Vivian Wu, Bjarne Henriksen, Paw Henriksen, Charlotte Fich, Nicolas Winding Refn, Laura Bro, Johan Rabaeus, Mogens Rex, Peder Thomas Pedersen, Lin Kun Wu (more)Plots(1)
Keld is a mild-mannered, middle-aged, self-employed plumber, languishing in his job and his life, whose existence crashes down around him when his wife of 23 years abruptly leaves him one day without any warning. Suddenly alone, he seeks comfort and sustenance from his local Chinese restaurant, where he works his way through the menu from number 1 to number 22 and then, realising that there might possibly be more to life than he’d previously realised, starts again from the top. Whilst doing so, he gets involved in a big plumbing job for the restaurant’s owner, Feng, and ends up receiving an offer he feels strangely compelled to accept – the chance to enter into a pro-forma marriage with Feng’s sister, without which she won’t be allowed to stay in the country. So now Keld suddenly finds himself sharing his apartment with the beautiful and exotic Ling, who amongst other uncommon qualities has a flair for Chinese cooking and Tai Chi.
Although they are forced to communicate using only a phrase book and a Chinese for Beginners language course, they are none the less drawn to each other, and in spite of the major cultural differences and the best efforts of amongst others, Keld’s ex-wife, the unlikely couple end up falling in love.
But there’s a secret waiting to be revealed, a secret that turns out to be fatal, forcing Keld to accept that happiness and misfortune go hand in hand. However, unlike the time when his wife left him, Keld’s now grown up, and is able to meet the world, and everything it has to offer, head on. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (1)
If something elevates Scandinavian cinema, and especially Danish cinema, it is clearly human emotions and the gloomy feelings one gets from their movies that will draw you into the story as if those mishaps were happening to you. And Chinaman is no different. A Chinese man enters into a Danish man’s life, offering him something that a human soul drowning in solitude is unlikely to refuse. But who would have thought that it would launch a rollercoaster of emotions from which there is no way out. At the end of the film, I felt incredibly sorry for the main character and couldn’t get him out of my head for the rest of the evening.
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