''A Great Wall'' is a 1986

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written, directed and starring

Peter Wang Peter Wang () is a Taiwanese actor and director from Beijing. He is best known for writing and directing the 1986 film, ''A Great Wall'', the first American feature to be co-produced by the People's Republic of China. Wang was born in Beijing b ...

. It was the first American feature film shot in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and was

Kelvin Han Yee Kelvin Han Yee (born June 14, 1961, San Francisco, California) is an American actor who has appeared in numerous films such as '' Destroyer'', ''Milk'' (as Gordon Lau), '' Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star'' (as Vietnamese Crime Boss), '' Lucky Yo ...

's first film.

Plot

When a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

executive goes back to his homeland of China for the first time in 30 years, he and his family encounter many culture clashes between the lives that they lead in the United States and the lives of their relatives in China. The finale of the movie includes an exciting table tennis match involving the Chinese-American son played by

Cast

as Leo Fang *

as Paul Fang * Li Qinqin as Chao Lili * Shen Guanglan as Mrs. Chao * Hu Xiaoguang as Mr. Chao * Wang Xiao as Liu Yida * Sharon Iwai as Grace Fang * Xiu Jian as Yu

Reception

The film was met with critical acclaim. The film has a score of 80% with a certified "Fresh" rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 5 reviews. Acclaimed film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

from the ''Chicago-Sun Times'' awarded the film with 3 out of 4 stars and wrote of the film saying "A Great Wall is a human comedy about a Chinese-American family that goes to visit relatives in Peking, and within that simple premise are so many inspirations that the movie is interesting even when it's just looking at things." and went on to say "The chief pleasure of "A Great Wall" is its observation of the different attitudes toward the daily process of living in China and the United States."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Wall, A 1986 films 1986 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films American independent films Films about Chinese Americans 1980s Mandarin-language films Films about race and ethnicity Films shot in China 1986 comedy films 1986 drama films Chinese-language American films 1980s English-language films 1986 independent films 1986 multilingual films American multilingual films 1980s American films