CHEMISTRY – Feature Film
Co-Producers: Michael Kerr, J.J. Osbun*, Xie Xiaodong **
Director: Xie Xiaodong
Writers: Michael Kerr, Xie Xiaodong
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SCRIPT AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST - ATTACHING PRINCIPLE CAST NOW
With his 12th dramatic feature film, Chemistry, Chinese writer/director Xie Xiaodong* is now making a film set entirely in America at the turn of the 21st century: about a young, brilliant Chinese immigrant chemistry student who slams into the American Dream, struggling to become a man. His name is BAO YU, based on a true story. Bao marries and has a daughter, then discovers his new self on an American odyssey, staying one step ahead of the Yin/Yang action.
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Significantly, Chemistry is also the very first Chinese/American crossover film by a Chinese director. Through the camera of talented and successful film maker, Xie, who’s sensibility is steeped in American film (as seen in his films Nirvana and other high-grossing movies); this very human, immigrant story of Bao Yu also dramatizes two cultures which today may not be so far apart as they seem.
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Knocking Bao Yu off his feet from the moment we meet him, Chemistry begins as a purely American indie character flick quickly launching into a genre mash-up of suspense, romance, crime, action.... On a deeper level throughout, it’s an original and authentic assimilation story set against recent events: The Millennial virus, Hurricane Katrina, The Great Recession; each spinning the trajectory of Bao’s American life off in a new direction. Chemistry is about the human chemistry which binds or repels us in dramatic conflict. Not just how do you become a man, but what is humanity. This hip, modern and real story will make audiences laugh, make them identify, make them cry, but in the end with joy and hope. And always want to watch it again for its original and cool take on slice-of-life in America.
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**Xie Xiaodong divides his time between China and Los Angeles with his wife, acclaimed documentary film-maker Jun Gu, and their daughter Lily who attends Harvard-Westlake school.
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*J. J. Osbun has produced, written, directed & D.P.’d over ten documentary films in China through Monarex Hollywood Corp. based in Los Angeles; covering culture, history, social & economic issues.
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