Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

“Perfect Life” tells the story of two women who meet briefly by chance. 21-year-old Li Yueying lives in Northeast China. Her father has abandoned the family and she must now deal with her mother and a difficult brother while starting a new job as a maid in a hotel. There she catches the eye of a charismatic Mongolian who often stays in the hotel and persists in trying to invite her out despite repeated brush-offs. It turns out, though, that he is a criminal with big troubles of his own… Jenny is a mainland woman who has been living in Hong Kong for ten years. Despite the appearance of a perfect life, her world shatters when she and her husband divorce and she is beset by economic problems and the threat of losing custody of her two children. These two women meet only once, very briefly, but have more in common than first appears. Across these two counterpointed lives, “Perfect Life” constructs a panorama of desires and hopes. Blending fiction and documentary, director Emily Tang examines the subject of immigration and the possibility of women achieving independence in today’s China.

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