Shun Li and the Poet

Moving relationship drama (and culture study)
Let me state upfront that I am a long-time fan of the Film Movement library of indie and foreign movies, so much so that I finally gave in and started a subscription to their DVD of the Month club earlier this year. This movie is the November, 2012 release in that on-going series.

"Shun Li and the Poet" (2011 release from Italy; original title "Io sono Li"; 98 min.) brings the story of Shun Li, a migrant laborer from China now working in textiles in Rome, away from her family, most importantly her 8 yr. old son. One day, Li is informed by her (Chinese) superiors (for whom Li is just a pawn in a bigger game of money-making) that she is being transferred to Chioggia, a lagoon village near Venice, to run a cafe/pub they have just bought. The place is mostly frequented by local fishermen, among them being Bepi, himself an immigrant 30 years earlier from Yugoslavia. Li and Bepi strike a friendship, and not long after, both the local fishermen and Li's Chinese superiors do not...
(3.5 STARS) Lonely Souls
Shun Li (Tao Zhao) is a middle-aged Chinese woman working at an osteria (Italian-style pub) named "Paradiso" at Chioggia, a coastal town south of Venice. Shun Li, a migrant mother whose only son still lives in China, loves reciting poems of Qu Yuan, a renowned poet of ancient China.

Bepi (Rade Serbedzija) is the "poet," a former Yugoslavia-born fisherman who loves improving poems. Shun Li and Bepi, who share a common interest and background, find themselves attracted to each other.

The film works best when showing Shun Li and Bepi in the quiet town of Chioggia. Obviously the first-time feature director Andrea Segre knows the town very well, as the beautifully-shot images of the lagoons show you.

But the film's rather melodramatic story is nothing new. Some situations seem forced and rushed. The idea of letting someone who has been working at a textile factory (and she can barely speak Italian) manage an osteria sounds improbable.

Still, Tao...
Immigrants In Italy: A Quiet Contemplation Of Friendship And Connectivity
As a thoughtful examination of an unlikely friendship, the moving Italian film "Shun Li and the Poet" has a quiet sort of power that sneaks up on you. The lead character (Shun Li, played with understated grace by Zhao Tao) is an emigrant from China hoping to establish a better life with more opportunities for her son. To finance the move, she is committed to work for an organization that holds her "debt" and uses her for cheap labor wherever they need her. She has little contact with her father and son back in China, just plugs away at a job without ever really know where she stands in relationship to financial freedom. As we meet Shun Li, she is toiling away at a clothing factory in Rome. Her work ethic, however, has brought her a greater responsibility and a forced move to a neighborhood bar on the outskirts of Venice. Now a proprietress and manager, she deals with the regular clientele from a somewhat sedentary fishing community. It is in this lonely place that she will meet a...
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