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Director Ying Liang is inspired by his own recent autobiographical history in this poignant portrait of an unusual family reunion that occurs despite exile, threats and the grief born of forced separation.
Ying Liang’s 2012 film When Night Falls was the subject of intense government disapproval in China, resulting in the director exiling himself to Hong Kong. Now he takes this experience and transposes it into the story of filmmaker Yang Shu, who also lives in Hong Kong due to making a subversive film that ran afoul of authorities. Separated from her mother Chen Xialon who remained behind, Yang Shu travels with her husband and son to Taiwan for a reunion – of a kind. With Chen Xialon only allowed to travel as part of a tour group under watchful eyes, mother and daughter play chicken with the powers that be and snatch brief moments together filled with heartache and regret.
A powerful exploration of what it means to be displaced and the trauma of being torn away from family, while also retaining a lightness of touch and an element of farce, A Family Tour is deeply personal, poetic cinema.
“Mixing its political and personal themes with passionate urgency, A Family Tour somehow manages to convey desperation and hopefulness simultaneously.” – The Hollywood Reporter
