SCREEN | Anna Akana Travels to 'Go Back to China'

"It was always my dream to have all my children under one roof."

Gravitas Ventures

YouTube star Anna Akana tackles her first feature lead role in the cross-cultural Chinese-American family comedy Go Back to China. Filmmaker Emily Ting balances her dysfunctional multi-generational relationships with common Asian themes of obligation or providing and individual creative pursuits.

Akana's sparkling performance as a spoiled trust fund kid and fashion student with an absentee father (Richard Ng) threads a lot of different thematic needles rather comically. Co-starring Lynn Chen and Kelly Hu as Sascha's half-sister and divorced single mother, Ting has assembled a dynamic Chinese cast with varied familiarity and acting styles.

Set initially around Los Angeles hot spots before switching to a working-class Chinese toy factory and locations in between including a gaudy nouveau rich mansion, the film creates a fun sense of geography. That feeling only heightens the universal comedic elements beyond the archetypical "fish out of water" and "stranger in a strange land" stories of unfamiliar homelands.

Essentially a multi-national indie comedy about highly dysfunctional families, Go Back to China tells both a refreshing and familiar story using hallmarks of immigrant Chinese culture with a sheen of affluence that's very relatable. Ting continues her string of interesting Asian-centric cinema with Akana as a compelling lead.

Go Back to China is available to stream on various digital platforms and through video on demand.


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