On Your ‘Mark’
A trio of first-time feature directors dissect the Chinese immigrant experience in … Canada? That’s loony.
Fresh off Markham
Directors: Kurt Yuen, Cyrus Lo, Trevor Choi • Writers: Kurt Yuen, Cyrus Lo, Trevor Choi
Starring: Chang Nian, Li He, Jessica Chan, Edmond Clark
China / Canada • 1hr 23mins
Opens Hong Kong Nov 28 • IIB
Grade: C
In the loosely connected triptych Fresh Off Markham | 敗走麥城, Hong Kong-born directors Kurt Yuen Cheun-dak and Trevor Choi Hong-ying, and their Chinese brethren Cyrus Lo Huaien treat us to, in order of appearance, a classic immigrant tale, a cross-cultural farce and a supernatural drama, with each part of the interconnected whole examining migration, connection and identity in a post-COVID Markham, one of Toronto’s farther-flung suburbs. It’s also one that’s been re-colonised by Chinese immigrants, and as of 2020 counted as, at least, the city’s fifth Chinatown. Now, it’s as multi-ethnic as any other part of Toronto, it’s just not quite as urbane. Come on, it’s the damned ’burbs and the subway doesn’t go there. It’s the kind of grey, disconnected neighbourhood – an even more soulless Tsuen Wan – kids who move there from Hong Kong count the days ’til getting out of.
No doubt Yuen, Choi and Lo’s title is a spin on the derogatory nickname (?) used for new arrivals in a foreign country – is it okay to say now that there’s been a mainstream TV show called Fresh Off the Boat? – and in their debut feature the trio has plenty on its mind. With a handful of shorts to their collective credit (including Choi’s Michael Ning-starring Ouroboros and Lo’s Aftershock) they’re able to weave the three stories into one, rather than make an anthology, but some shoddy production and at least one mostly-stilted performance make Fresh Off Markham feel like a student film. That said, it’s a perspective rarely seen in cinema, where people only ever emigrate to the US, and anyone familiar with the Mark will be amused. And I know it’s a “city” on its own. It will always be a ’burb to me.
Chapter one “Red River” begins with a Chinese immigrant, Shan (Chang Nian, the standout actor), arriving in working-to-middle class Markham and meeting up with his resident buddy Kevin (Li He, and these two look straight out of a Ning Hao movie), eager to get to find a job, get to work and start earning for the family back home. It’s a familiar story, and also familiar is the dearth of jobs to go around. Not even Kevin’s pal at a local restaurant is hiring at the moment. When Shan gets shaken down by a so-called immigration consultant – not much better than a snakehead – he takes drastic measures to get his CA$35,000 placement fee (da fuq?!) back. Next thing he know, he and Kevin are holding up a Japanese restaurant and running afoul of its katana-wielding owner. Shan’s dramatic plight segues into the farcical “Five Point O”, in which they jump into O’Shea Johnson’s (Edmond Clark, the weak link) Uber as he waits for his fare. Shan and Kevin need a doctor, O’Shea – one of Markham’s two Black men – is still stewing over his last racist ride (“Logung, the driver is Black and now he has our address”) and along comes Hong Kong influencer Circle Tam (Jessica Chan Yee-chun, who had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it part in Time Still Turns The Pages). She needs to finish her post and drags them along to lunch before O’Shea drops. The ever-connected Circle leaves the driver with some advice and before you know it, cops are involved. We leave the thieves and their unwitting wheel-man behind for the last chapter, “Backroom” (though the title card says “Basement”), with Circle viewing a fancy house for her father and getting an eerie taste of Chinese-Canadian history before she’s done.
Despite the creaky production and hit-and-miss performances, FOM’s truly independent spirit and seemingly self-financed and produced elan (in this film economy) is admirable, and the chutzpah Yuen, Choi and Lo display hints at greater things if they had more money. But hey, it found a slot for its world premiere at 2024’s HKIFF (sold out, too). Underneath the rough surface are some clever observations about cultural authenticity – something Canadians hold up as a point of distinction from their more Trumpian neighbours and which comes with its own brand of fuckery – complicated legacies, the occasional unreliability of your tribe (Circle’s dad may be a dick) and, duh, race relations. James Cheng and Nora Chum are Japanese in so far as they can blurt out an “Irasshaimase”, and Shan’s bafflement at the immigration scam and casual disregard from “his people” is nicely observed. And the subtle distance put up by the back and forth between Cantonese and Putonghua is sharp as a tack. But Fresh Off Markham ultimately can’t quite overcome its shortcomings, one of which is enough of a budget to get creative with the visual language, the second of which is its earnestness. People don’t talk about race the way they do in this Markham; it’s too correct. A sharper blade may have done the trick.