Director: Pauline Chan
Cast: Guy Pearce, Claudia Karvan, Lincoln Lewis and Zhu Lin.
Release Date: TBA
The Australian film industry was given a major ego boost in 2010, with the incredible international and local success of films including David Michôd’s Academy Award nominated Animal Kingdom. They’re ability to capture an aspect of Australian life that felt truthful and insightful, both here and around the world, illustrated the power and potential of our ever increasing film market. In 2011, Pauline Chan’s 33 Postcards, the first co-production between China and New South Wales, was set to illustrate, once more, how original and creative the Australian film industry can be. However, this film failed to reach anything close to what should be expected from an Australian drama, by creating a film that was not only tiresome to watch but seemed tiresome to make.
33 Postcards follows the story of 16 year old orphan Mei Mei (Chinese newcomer Zhu Lin), who dreams of leaving her Chinese orphanage in order to meet her Australian sponsor, Dean Randall (Guy Pearce), a typical Sydney-sider living the perfect life. When her Orphanage’s Choir is invited to sing in Sydney, Mei Mei takes the opportunity to seek Dean out and explore the idyllic life he has depicted in postcards for over 10 years. However, what she finds is tragically a lot different to anything she could have possibly imagined.
In many ways this film was a contextually original idea. The concept of exploring the relationships that develop between orphans and their international sponsors is very timely, particularly with the increasing local interest in international humanitarian support and social justice. However, Pauline Chan directs this film with the same level of enthusiasm as an episode of Home And Away or Neighbours. What the audience is presented with is a serious of uninteresting and cliched events, sluggishly propelling forward without any consideration for originality or accuracy. Too much emphasis is placed on the stereotypical, with every character and setting evoking a sense of déjà vu that leaves audience yarning for the predictable ending ahead.
The acting does nothing to alleviate the technical failures of this film. Guy Pearce and Zhu Lin are disappointingly unwatchable as Dean and Mei Mei. Their pseudo father/daughter relationship is completely lost and never able to connect with the audience because neither character feels realistic. Claudia Karvan is the film’s only saving grace, playing a very believable attorney struggling with her own personal and professional demons. However, this would not be hard to achieve as every other character is played like a two dimensional cut from a tourism Australia commercial.
While it is good to see Australian filmmakers attempting more creative and international projects, 33 Postcards fails to do so in a realistic and engaging manner. This was a film that could have provided a lot of insight into an area of great local and international interest but fails to provide the audience with anything original to be interested in. At the end of this film the audience is left feeling like they have watched a rather long soap opera, whose clichéd characters and events were sent directly from Summer Bay.
The Film Dissection 