Release Date – TBC, Cert – TBC, Run-time – 1 hour 43 minutes, Director – Lloyd Lee Choi
Having only just secured a cramped, one-bedroom space for his imminent families arrival, New York City deliver rider Lu (Chang Chen) struggles to get by, especially when at risk of losing his job.
There’s an emotional helplessness to Lucky Lu as the titular protagonist’s (Chang Chen) life continues to give in under the weight of itself. Having emigrated to New York City in the hope of giving his family a better life, and opening a restaurant, five years have passed and Lu is finally ready to welcome his wife (Fola Chen) and young daughter (Carabelle Manna Wei) into the cramped one-bedroom flat he’s only just barely secured.
However, not long after their arrival Lu’s e-bike is stolen. He frantically runs around trying to collect and deliver orders, only for them to take too long to arrive to customers, and get cold in the process. Money troubles get worse, loans are declined and work is on the line. The washed-out, grey look that adds to the dirt and grime of the city, squashed into the aspect ratio adding to the feeling that this city, and land, or dreams isn’t all it’s been made out to be.
All these pressures and worries are maintained in a slow-pace that’s made bearable, and somehow not bleak, by the level of compassion which writer-director Lloyd Lee Choi, in his feature debut, shows to his characters. From start to finish his gaze, and the restrained lead performance from Chang Chen, remains quietly compelling and emotionally in-tune with everything we’re shown. Lu tries to connect with his daughter but struggles to amongst the demands to bring in money for his family, often attempting to do both at the same time with what seems like little success in both regards.
Choi wills him on, as do we, amongst the emotionally and mentally draining struggle we see him go through over again. With care and want to see him, and his family, succeed. Gently paced and providing a good deal of insight into his life with details of others naturally leaking into the wider picture as a portrait of another side of New York life is created. One that’s caringly and thoughtfully made, getting across many stories of struggle within one of a single family. A family who have great weight behind them thanks to the quiet and natural performances which effectively get across the strains they face and the natures of their relationships with the most subtle of looks and gestures. Creating further compassion from the viewer to add to that displayed by the camera in the grime of the faded city.
Multiple stories leak into that of the central family in Lucky Lu, subtly performed and captured with quiet compassion which helps to prevent despair in the effectively slow pacing, this is a finely-tuned story of struggle in a city as faded as the dreams brought to it.
Just A Little Bit Random 