She, A Chinese

Novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo continues her examination of modern China via this cinematic bildungsroman, in which Li Mei (Lu Huang, pictured), who starts off never having travelled more than five miles from home, winds up in London via a series of unpleasant events. En route, she learns the many ways in which a pretty Chinese girl can be objectified – as a woman, an Oriental, a foreigner – and the general untrustworthiness of most men.

This would be depressing, except that Mei is a delight: a feisty, shrewd young woman, uneducated but intelligent and more than capable of surviving the brickbats life keeps throwing at her. We leave her still in motion, but confident that she’ll get there – wherever there may be.