''Meditation Park'' is a 2017 Canadian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Mina Shum Mina Shum (born 1966) is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, ''Double Happiness (film), Double Ha ...

. The film opened the 2017

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

and was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

2017 Toronto International Film Festival The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2017. There were fourteen programs, with the Vanguard and City to City programs both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down by ...

. Following in the footsteps of her previous work like Double Happiness, ''Meditation Park'' highlights director Shum's

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

ancestry. Notably, the film highlights stars

Sandra Oh Sandra Miju Oh (born July 20, 1971) is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Rita Wu in ''Arliss (TV series), Arliss'' (1996–2002), Cristina Yang in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–14), and Eve Polastri in ''Kill ...

and

Don McKellar Don McKellar (born August 17, 1963) is a Canadian actor, writer, playwright, and filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. He is known for directing and writing th ...

. Shum's ''Meditation Park'' questions traditional gender roles and reveals difficulties associated with the immigrant experience. It debuted to positive reviews at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

and opened in selected theatres on 9 March 2018.

Plot

Maria ( Cheng Pei Pei) is a 60-year-old grandmother who immigrated from

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

39 years ago with her husband, Bing, in order to create a better life for their children. On her husband's 65th birthday, which coincides with their move to Canada, Bing, an accountant, is called away to work with a client and returns home late. The following morning, Maria discovers an orange thong in his pants and is conflicted over what to do. Realizing that her entire life has been spent catering to her husband, Maria decides to find work to try to have some financial freedom. She quickly realizes her experience is outdated and she is unsuitable for office work. She befriends three local Cantonese women: May, Anita and Su. The women teach her to manage her own business leveraging her backyard for parking space. She also meets Gabriel, an unfriendly neighbour who undercuts the women's prices. After they are almost caught by the police, Maria and Gabriel bond as he reveals that he is lashing out at his neighbours to cover the fact that he is struggling over his wife's terminal illness. Maria begins following Bing and eventually discovers his mistress. After spying on her several times Maria is caught by the mistress who realizes who she is and cuts off her relationship with Bing. Bing falls into a severe depression and Maria feels so sorry for him she asks his mistress to take him back, which she refuses to do, recognizing she was wrong for ever starting a relationship with Bing. Maria and Bing's daughter Ava, now a mother of two children herself, begins to push her mother to reconcile with her brother Charlie, who has become estranged from his parents due to an argument with Bing. Ava reveals that Charlie is about to be married and though Maria misses her son she decides she cannot go against her husband. Charlie's fiancée Dylan also makes a surprise visit to meet Maria and Maria welcomes her though she keeps the visit a secret from Bing. Gabriel's wife dies and Maria hugs him. She is caught by Bing who forbids her to continue her friendship with him or to work. Infuriated by his controlling behaviour Maria finally decides to go to Charlie's wedding. Ava supports her decision and tells her father he can no longer control her mother or her by threatening to disown her. The day of her departure Bing tries to stop Maria from going but she reveals she knows that he had an affair and that she refuses to live her life for him alone anymore.

Cast

Cheng Pei-pei Cheng Pei-pei (6 January 1946 – 17 July 2024) was a Hong Kong-American actress who was considered cinema's first female action hero. Popularly known as "Queen of Swords" and "Queen of Martial Arts Films", Cheng starred in numerous successful ...

as Maria *

as Ava *

Liane Balaban Liane Balaban (born June 24, 1980) is a Canadian actress. Her film debut was in '' New Waterford Girl'' (1999) as Agnes-Marie "Mooney" Pottie. She has since appeared in the films '' Definitely, Maybe'' (2008), ''Last Chance Harvey'' (2008), and ...

as Dylan *

Tzi Ma Tzi Ma (;) is a Hong Kong-American actor. He has appeared in television shows including '' The Man in the High Castle'' and '' 24'', and films including ''Dante's Peak'', ''Rush Hour'', ''Rush Hour 3'', '' Arrival'', '' The Farewell'', ''Tiger ...

as Bing *

Zak Santiago Zak Santiago (born January 3, 1981) is a Canadian actor, dancer and DJ. Early life: A call to the arts Zak Santiago Alam, professionally known as Zak Santiago, was born on January 3, 1981 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to immigrant par ...

as Jonathan *

as Gabriel * Nelson Wong as Peter * Alannah Ong as May * Lillian Lim as Anita * Sharmaine Yeoh as Su

Funding

In addition to receiving funding from

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(CBC) and

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Canadian Crown corporation that supports Canada's audiovisual industry. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm Canada provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in Vancouver, British Colu ...

, ''Meditation Park'' is also supported by the Harold Greenberg Fund. It is also noted in the credits of the film, that the production would not have been possible without support and membership of the Union of B.C Performers.

Release

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' rated the film 3.5/4 stars. ''Meditation Park'' was also reviewed by '' The Gateway'' who criticized the comedic efforts of the film but said it was emotionally satisfying and introduced interesting perspectives of Chinese women in traditional Chinese families.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meditation Park 2017 films 2017 drama films Canadian drama films English-language Canadian films Films directed by Mina Shum Films scored by Andrew Lockington Films set in Vancouver Films shot in Vancouver 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films English-language drama films