Plum Town
2022 · 15m · USA
Directed by Kelly Yu
Tones: melancholic, tender
A young land developer returns to his rural Chinese childhood home for the first time in a decade to convince his stubborn father to sell their family plum orchard. When direct conversation fails, an old karaoke machine becomes the unexpected bridge between them.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Karaoke as emotional bridge between a developer and his stubborn dad over a doomed plum orchard — yes, I can already see the third-act duet. Minari-by-numbers with a cute production design flex.
A karaoke machine as the translation device between fathers and sons sits in the Lulu Wang tradition, tender and a touch over-prescribed. The LA-as-rural-China sleight-of-hand intrigues me more than the emotional architecture, which I suspect resolves too neatly.
Production design pulling off rural China in an LA duplex is a real craft win, and using a karaoke machine as the bridge instead of the dialogue scene everyone writes is the kind of specific object-choice that elevates familiar diaspora material.
Reviews
A wistful violin ebbs over windswept countryside...Yu already has me.
Festivals
- Boston Independent Film Festival 2022, Grand Jury Award
- Crested Butte Film Festival 2022, Grand Jury Award Best Comedy Short
- Northwest Film Forum Youth & Teen Festival (NFFTY) 2023, New Talent Award Best Director Under 25, Audience Award, Best Narrative Honorable Mention
- PBS Short Film Festival 2023