I don’t think that focusing on both Christine Choy and Tiananmen Square was ultimately to this film’s advantage, and it placed perhaps too much stock in the American paradise as a foil to China’s communist nightmare. But there are some fascinating interviews and lots of entirely gorgeous archival footage. I wonder if this might’ve been better had Choy just made it? Actually, I don’t wonder. This would’ve been better if Choy had just made it, and the documentary doesn’t even bother to interrogate why she didn’t.
I don’t think that focusing on both Christine Choy and Tiananmen Square was ultimately to this film’s advantage, and it placed perhaps too much stock in the American paradise as a foil to China’s communist nightmare. But there are some fascinating interviews and lots of entirely gorgeous archival footage. I wonder if this might’ve been better had Choy just made it? Actually, I don’t wonder. This would’ve been better if Choy had just made it, and the documentary doesn’t even bother to interrogate why she didn’t.
