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Illustrious Energy
aka Dreams Of Home

Screening: Monday 3 July, 6:30pm

Scene from Illustios Energy

New Zealand
1988

Director: Leon Narby
Producer: Don Reynolds
Screenplay: Martin Edmond, Leon Narby
Photography: Alan Locke
Editor: David Coulson
Music: Jan Preston Le

Shaun Bao (Chan)
Harry Ip (Kim)
Peter Chin (Wong)
Geeling (Li)
Desmond Kelly (Surveyor)
Heather Bolton (Mrs Wong)
90 mins
Colour
35mm
GY

Two Chinese gold miners in a remote valley in Central Otago, New Zealand, struggle to improve their lot. Chan is restless and unhappy; Kim, his father-in-law, wants to “hear the ocean” i.e. return to China. The goldfields are in decline: the presence of surveyors working in the area confirms that change is imminent. When they make a lucky strike on their claim, it seems their problems are over. But Chan, despatched into town to pay debts, soon learns there are other alternatives: the attractions of life in the town, the offer of a job in the orchard of confirmed expatriate Wong, life on the road with a small circus. Because of the climate of violence towards the Chinese, and his obligations towards his elderly partner, Chan decides to return to China after all, only to have his decision cruelly undercut by the accidental death of Kim and the subsequent unlucky loss of the gold. –NZFC

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