The Kid from the Big Apple
| The Kid from the Big Apple | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster for the Singapore market | |
| Directed by | Jess Teong |
| Starring | Ti Lung, Jessica Hsuan, Sarah Tan |
Production company | Three Production |
| Distributed by | Three Production |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Languages | Standard Chinese, Cantonese, English |
The Kid from the Big Apple (Chinese: 我來自紐約) is a 2016 Malaysian film. The film stars Sarah Tan as Sarah, an 11 year old girl from New York who was forced to move to rural Malaysia to stay with her grandfather. The film garnered several awards at the 7th Macau International Movie Festival and the 28th Malaysian Film Festival.[1][2]
Plot
Sarah was reluctantly moved to Malaysia to stay with a grandfather whom she had never met before as her mother had to stay in China to resolve problems relating to work. Initially, Sarah refused to adapt to her grandfather's traditional cultural practices, such as eating chicken feet for breakfast and found them disgusting. Despite the best efforts of her grandfather to re-create her familiar environment by adapting western cuisine using local substitutes, Sarah only ate chips that she brought over from New York and refused to communicate with her grandfather.
Defeated, Sarah's grandfather turned to Ah Bao, a neighbour who claims to speak English, to translate his instructions in Chinese and Cantonese to Sarah. Annoyed but later amused at his poor command of English, Sarah starts to take an interest in the surrounding neighbourhood. She also reveals that she can actually understand and speak Chinese, much to her grandfather's relief. Slowly, she starts interacting with the children around the neighbourhood, who included her in their activities, and starts adapting to the local environment. She also began to interact with her grandfather and a bond starts to form between them.
Between the scenes of interactions between Sarah and her grandfather, there were also flashbacks that revealed the strained relationship between Sarah's mother and grandfather. It was revealed that Sarah's mother, unmarried and pregnant with Sarah, had a strong argument with her father (Sarah's grandfather) who was strongly against her moving to New York to live with her boyfriend. She disregarded his advice and ran away from home, never contacting him for decades while perusing a career as a fashion designer whilst balancing her role of a single mother after Sarah's father abandoned her.
Over time, the bond between Sarah and her grandfather deepened, despite occasional tension created by differences between her contemporary, social media-influenced lifestyle and her grandfather's conservative values. Sarah had warmed to the community so much that as the time draws closer to her departure, she became reluctant to leave. Above all, she did not want to leave her grandfather alone, as she had learnt of his various health ailments that he had hid from everyone over the years. Sarah thus prodded her grandfather to embrace new media so that she could communicate with him overseas and also tried desperately to get her mother and grandfather to reconcile.
Cast
- Sarah Tan Qin Lin as Sarah Lim Si Jia
- Ti Lung as Lim Chun Gen, Sarah's grandfather
- Jessica Hsuan as Sophia Lin, Sarah's mother
- Jayson Tan as Ah Bao, Sarah's friend
- Lenna Lim as Ivy
Release
The Kid from the Big Apple made its debut at the 7th Macau International Movie Festival in December 2015, where it won several film awards.[3] The film made its cinematic debut in its home market of Malaysia and Singapore on 10 March 2016.[4] It was subsequently released internationally in Taiwan and Hong Kong on 11 March 2016 and 21 April 2016 respectively.[3]
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7th Macau International Movie Festival[5] | Golden Lotus Award for Best Actor | Won | Ti Lung |
| Golden Lotus Award for Best Supporting Actress | Won | Jessica Hsuan | ||
| Golden Lotus Award for Best Newcomer | Won | Tan Qi Ling | ||
| Golden Lotus Award for Best Writing | Won | Zhang Juexi | ||
| 2016 | 28th Malaysian Film Festival[2] | Best Child Actor | Won | Tan Qi Ling |
| Special Jury Awards | Won | The Kid from the Big Apple |
References
- ^ Cheang, Michael (2016-03-10). "The Kid From The Big Apple will melt your hearts". The Star Online. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ^ a b Chua, Dennis (2016-09-09). "28th Malaysian Film Festival: Big names, big wins". New Straits Times. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ^ a b "Award-winning 'The Kid from The Big Apple' to open in local cinemas tomorrow". Malay Mail Online. 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ^ Wai Yee, Yip (2016-03-09). "Ti Lung loves being a granddad". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ^ "7th Macau International Movie Festival". Macau International Movie Festival Official website (in Chinese). 2015-12-13. Retrieved 2016-11-01.