|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Anastasia Lin, a Canadian with Chinese roots who left China at age 13,
was chosen Miss World Canada in 2015, which qualified her for the Miss
World pageant - which was to be held in China. But because of her
outspoken criticism of human rights violations in China, she didn't
receive a letter of invitation from the Chinese gouvernment, and when she
tried to enter the country with a tourist visa via Hong Kong - but was
turned back by gouvernment officials. This led to an outcry in global
media - and eventually led the Miss World organisation, which is dependent
on Chinese sponsors, to invite her back to the competition in 2016, just
to keep face. In that years pageant, Anastasi wanted to use the platform
to protest organ harvesting in China. But that almost didn't happen as the
organisation tried to muzzle her, trying to shield her from the media -
even if this time around the pageant wasn't held in China but in
Washington DC. However, several media outlets took her side, so again to
keep face the organisation let her speak but saw to it that she ended as
an also-ran and never really got center stage. But that's not likely to
silence her anytime soon ... Sometimes, it's really life that
writes the best thrillers, and this is one of them, showing the many ways
a totalitarian regime tries to influence public opinion - even if it's
through a beauty pageant. But what makes this movie compelling is that it
manages to tell Anastasia Lin's story without much spectacle and
excitement that you'd almost expect from a movie like this, but in a very
factual way - and that makes the story really get under one's skin: While
the film most certainly doesn't pretend to be neutral, it doesn't
exaggerate or try too hard to hammer its message home, doesn't present
Anastasia either as a larger-than-life heroine or a perfect drama queen
but basically a down-to-earth woman whose heart just happens to be in the
right place, and who has the best of intentions - and that's what makes
the story so creepy, she and her mission are so relatable one can't shake
the feeling this could happen to any of us ...
|