Photo: Guo Xiaol's We Went to Wonderland
A documentary-cum-vacation-movie, We Went to Wonderland depicts the maiden European holiday of an older Chinese couple as shot by their daughter Guo Xiaolu. Unable to speak because of throat cancer surgery, the husband (whose eagerness to see the world is the trip's impetus) struggles to converse via hand-written notes, an example of communication difficulties that are subtly mirrored by the couple's cultural alienation in Europe, a place where they don't speak the language and about which—because of a lack of education—the wife knows practically nothing. Generational divisions further define the duo's journey, as the husband remarks that whereas he once (as part of the Cultural Revolution) painted propaganda art and outlawed mahjong, he's now free to explore his own artistic impulses as well as encouraged by his wife to play the traditional Chinese game. Nick Schager
A documentary-cum-vacation-movie, We Went to Wonderland depicts the maiden European holiday of an older Chinese couple as shot by their daughter Guo Xiaolu. Unable to speak because of throat cancer surgery, the husband (whose eagerness to see the world is the trip's impetus) struggles to converse via hand-written notes, an example of communication difficulties that are subtly mirrored by the couple's cultural alienation in Europe, a place where they don't speak the language and about which—because of a lack of education—the wife knows practically nothing. Generational divisions further define the duo's journey, as the husband remarks that whereas he once (as part of the Cultural Revolution) painted propaganda art and outlawed mahjong, he's now free to explore his own artistic impulses as well as encouraged by his wife to play the traditional Chinese game. Nick Schager
