Despite an impressive performance from Joan Chen, and a confident technical sheen, HOME SONG STORIES fails to deliver as drama due to a weak, underwritten script, which keeps characters and incidents vague and one-note.
The main problem is that the film doesn't have an act one, deciding to give us character and story foundation in around the same time it takes to boil an egg.
Because of this, we only get a narrow-minded view of Rose (Joan Chen), never getting to know what kind of person she was in Shanghai, never seeing what kind of person Bill (Steven Vidler) was that convinced Rose to move to another country, and what the circumstances were that made Rose leave Bill a week after they were married.
Therefore, we see Rose as a completely irresponsible person, a one-sided look at a rather more complex person.
On the plus side, the film is extremely well-made, and performances by Joel Lok and Irene Chan as the two children are quite believable and natural, while Yuwu Qi also impresses as Joe, one of Rose's many lovers.
The film, however, belongs to Joan Chen, who manages to find an emotional core to the role of Rose, bringing a loving warmth and fractured insanity to a character that is badly underwritten by writer/director Tony Ayres, who obviously has an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, but fails to give it substance within the framework of a feature film.
Despite being watchable, HOME SONG STORIES falls short of its ambitions, a missed opportunity at showing an important part of Australia's immigrant past.
The main problem is that the film doesn't have an act one, deciding to give us character and story foundation in around the same time it takes to boil an egg.
Because of this, we only get a narrow-minded view of Rose (Joan Chen), never getting to know what kind of person she was in Shanghai, never seeing what kind of person Bill (Steven Vidler) was that convinced Rose to move to another country, and what the circumstances were that made Rose leave Bill a week after they were married.
Therefore, we see Rose as a completely irresponsible person, a one-sided look at a rather more complex person.
On the plus side, the film is extremely well-made, and performances by Joel Lok and Irene Chan as the two children are quite believable and natural, while Yuwu Qi also impresses as Joe, one of Rose's many lovers.
The film, however, belongs to Joan Chen, who manages to find an emotional core to the role of Rose, bringing a loving warmth and fractured insanity to a character that is badly underwritten by writer/director Tony Ayres, who obviously has an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, but fails to give it substance within the framework of a feature film.
Despite being watchable, HOME SONG STORIES falls short of its ambitions, a missed opportunity at showing an important part of Australia's immigrant past.