The
movie is told from the point of view of Tom, a Chinese-Australian writer, who reminisces about his childhood. In 1964, his foster father Bill brings his nightclub singer mom Rose (Joan Chen) with him and his sister May from Shanghai to Melbourne. It's pretty obvious that Rose only married Bill in order to get a spouse visa because just after seven days of arriving in Melbourne, she skips town and settles in Sydney (Chinatown, I guess). From here on, she takes on a string of Chinese guys, in search of Mr. Right.
After seven years of fruitless searching, she decides to go back to Bill, who even picked them up from the station and never has a bad word to say. There's a Chinese saying which goes, "
One who is in the company of good fortune does not know how fortunate he is." In just a matter of days, Rose is again like an ant on a hot pan. She goes to the local Chinese restaurant and befriends the owner and staff. She starts having an affair with the young chef Joe, eventually gets caught by Bill's mother-in-law, and gets ejected from the house.
Things all went downhill from there. The family holes up in this shack. Joe starts gambling. Rose becomes clingy and nagging. Joe focuses his attention to May, who's now turning into a woman. Rose attempts suicide. May follows her mom's example. Rose tries her hand again at suicide and this time she succeeds (to the relief of most of the audience). Again, it's up to Bill to pick up the pieces. Tom later grows up to become Tony Ayres who wrote and directed the
movie.
The movie is told from the point of view of Tom, a Chinese-Australian writer, who reminisces about his childhood. In 1964, his foster father Bill brings his nightclub singer mom Rose (Joan Chen) with him and his sister May from Shanghai to Melbourne. It's pretty obvious that Rose only married Bill in order to get a spouse visa because just after seven days of arriving in Melbourne, she skips town and settles in Sydney (Chinatown, I guess). From here on, she takes on a string of Chinese guys, in search of Mr. Right. 
After seven years of fruitless searching, she decides to go back to Bill, who even picked them up from the station and never has a bad word to say. There's a Chinese saying which goes, "One who is in the company of good fortune does not know how fortunate he is." In just a matter of days, Rose is again like an ant on a hot pan. She goes to the local Chinese restaurant and befriends the owner and staff. She starts having an affair with the young chef Joe, eventually gets caught by Bill's mother-in-law, and gets ejected from the house.
Things all went downhill from there. The family holes up in this shack. Joe starts gambling. Rose becomes clingy and nagging. Joe focuses his attention to May, who's now turning into a woman. Rose attempts suicide. May follows her mom's example. Rose tries her hand again at suicide and this time she succeeds (to the relief of most of the audience). Again, it's up to Bill to pick up the pieces. Tom later grows up to become Tony Ayres who wrote and directed the movie.
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