Eve and the Fire Horse | Review

Kwan creates a project that is close to home.

Often left to fend for themselves, being a child in a grown-up’s world can often be a puzzling journey, and especially confusing when the formative years filter questions of culture, identity, religion and mortality. Canadian filmmaker Julie Kwan’s Eve and the Fire Horse is a charming, heartfelt, seamlessly well-constructed first film that gives a tangy rendition of the North American immigrant experience.

With a capacity to poke fun at growing up Chinese, Canadian and during the 70’s, Kwan parlays perhaps some of her own personal experiences along with the common misconceptions and truths of cultural beliefs into a yummy, smart, articulate bilingually-spoken screenplay that speaks from the POV of a child. When grandma becomes a faded memory, two misfit sisters take traditional learning’s from home onto the school playgrounds dominated mostly by Christianity, thus lessons and notions about faith, the after-life and about burning money are plentiful.

There is a general playfulness to the overall tone of the film, some sequences summon that the heart is young and imagination should be plentiful – talking goldfish, Buddha and Jesus waltzing are deliciously inserted in a film where what is refreshing is to have a young actor narrate the film that isn’t intended for children. Kwan digs deep into presenting child’s perspective with two young actresses who brilliantly shoulder the film’s themes and a narrative that emphasizes their experiences through the visual, aural and sentimental. There are some weary portions where a the young actresses’ narration carries a more adult tone, but the figments of a child’s imagination and natural curiosity add to the film’s humorous and honest approach.

Credits go to the pacing and especially the sound photography – from shots from within a car, to a family dining experience to the simple focus pull of a Buddha then Jesus on a Crucifix. Steering clear from over sentimentality, this is one of the best gross domestic products that Canada has to offer. Hopefully Kwan’s low budget crowd pleaser finds the same kind of viewing public and the same sort of momentum as last year’s Whale Rider – a film that also demonstrated that the black sheep in the family is perhaps the strongest tie that binds.

January 20 – Sundance 2006.

Rating 4 stars