Restless (1998 Film)
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''Restless'' is a 1998
romantic film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey through d ...
directed and co-written by Jule Gilfillan, starring
Catherine Kellner Catherine Kellner (born October 2, 1970) is an American character actress, perhaps best known for appearing in Daft Punk's music-video for their song Da Funk. Early life and education Kellner was born in Manhattan, New York. Her mother was a p ...
,
David Wu David Wu (born April 8, 1955) is an American politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1999 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. Wu was born ...
, Chen Shiang-chyi and Geng Le. An American–Chinese co-production, the film was almost entirely shot and filmed in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and follows two Americans who find love in China. It was screened at multiple film festivals in 1998 and 1999 before receiving a limited theatrical release in the United States in 2000 and a DVD release on December 4, 2001. ''Restless'' was criticized for its clichéd and undelivered storylines, but praised for its scenery.


Plot

Leah (Kellner) is a translator who is traveling international cities in search of romance and closure with her estranged boyfriend Jeff. She eventually settles in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, where she meets and develops a fixation on Master Sun Zhan (Geng Le), who teaches here a Chinese game called ''
weiqi # Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to fence off more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously play ...
''. When her relationship with Master Sun Zhan takes a turn for the worse, Leah decides to focus on getting revenge on Jeff. Richard (Wu) is a shiftless Chinese-American whose family sends him to Beijing with his grandfather's ashes. Eventually Leah and Richard's paths cross.


Cast

*
Catherine Kellner Catherine Kellner (born October 2, 1970) is an American character actress, perhaps best known for appearing in Daft Punk's music-video for their song Da Funk. Early life and education Kellner was born in Manhattan, New York. Her mother was a p ...
as Leah Quinn, an American expat working for ''
China Daily ''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...
'' *
David Wu David Wu (born April 8, 1955) is an American politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1999 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. Wu was born ...
as Richard Kao, a
second-generation Second generation or variants may refer to: * Second generation immigrant ** Nisei, one of the second generation of people of Japanese descent in the Americas * Second generation of Chinese leaders, see Generations of Chinese leadership * Second-ge ...
Chinese-American * Chen Shiang-chyi as Lin Qingqing *Geng Le as Sun Zhan, a
weiqi # Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to fence off more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously play ...
master with the rank of 8 ''
dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa ** Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivo ...
'' *
Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born August 18, 1966) is a British actress. She made her screen debut starring in the romantic drama film ''Mississippi Masala'' (1991). She later appeared in American and international film productions, includ ...
as Jane Talwani *
Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including ''American Psycho'' (2000), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (2001), '' Sweet Home Alabama'' (2002), '' Wonderland'' (2003), ...
as Jeff Hollingsworth, Leah's cheating boyfriend *
Matthew Faber Matthew Faber (January 31, 1973 – March 28, 2020) was an American actor best known for his roles in films and television series such as ''Welcome to the Dollhouse'', ''Natural Born Killers'', ''Law & Order'' and ''Palindromes''. Faber died a ...
as Ben Gold *
Rachel DeWoskin Rachel DeWoskin (born 1972, Kyoto, Japan) is an American actress and author who is a 2012 recipient of the Alex Awards. she was an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Chicago. Early life and education DeWoskin was raised ...
as Monica *
Chen Jianbin Chen Jianbin (born June 27, 1970) is a Chinese actor and director. He is best known for his roles in television series, including Cao Cao in ''Three Kingdoms'' (2010) and the Emperor Yongzheng in '' Empresses in the Palace'' (2011)''.'' In 2014, ...
as "
Guanxi ''Guanxi'' () is a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual's social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. The character ''guan'', 关, means "closed" and "caring" while the character ''xi'' 系 mean ...
" *
Fu Biao Fu Biao (September 27, 1963 – August 30, 2005) was a Chinese actor. Biography Fu Biao was born in the family of an army officer on September 27, 1963, in Beijing. After graduating from high school, he entered a film academy in Beijing to learn ...
as Shen Gang, Lin Qingqing's suitor *Hu Xin as Xiaoming, Leah's coworker and friend *
Elizabeth Sung Elizabeth Fong Sung (; 14 October 1954 – 22 May 2018) was a Hong Kong-American actress, director, and screenwriter. She was also a revered acting teacher and mentor to young performers and filmmakers in the Asian-Pacific community. Early life ...
as Richard's mother


Production

Co-produced by
Celestial Pictures Celestial Pictures is an entertainment-based company focused on Asian-language film and content, encompassing production's, aggregation, distribution, and TV channels. It is headquartered in Hong Kong, and owned by Astro Overseas Limited. Ce ...
and Beijing Youth Film Studios, ''Restless'' was filmed in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
at a cost of $3 million. The dialog was shot primarily in English, with approximately 20% spoken in Chinese. Through the film's title and story, producer and co-writer Peter Shiao wanted to "capture something that's unique to
he college He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
generation ... the need to go on the road and explore yourself, in the process of exploring the world." While the film highlights the cultural differences between America and China, Shiao notes that he was careful not to overly politicize the dialog, wanting to avoid both being seen as too critical of the Chinese government, and of being too politically correct. He wanted the film to "test the viability of the Chinese market". Being co-produced with a Chinese company and under a profit-sharing film, Shiao felt the work could be distributed in China without the restrictions placed on other American films. He also felt it would aid diplomacy between the two countries after changes in China's handling of
intellectual properties Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
. He notes, however, that Chinese authorities would first have to approve the film, which "push sthe envelope". It took a year of negotiations over "script approvals, actor selections and crew" for the co-production to be approved, but Shiao felt it was important that the film be viewable to both Chinese and American audiences.


Distribution

''Restless'' was first screened at the
Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...
in November 1998. Additional screenings followed at Shown at Cinema Seattle/Women in Cinema Film Festival, held from January 29–February 4, 1999, the
Cleveland International Film Festival The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. CIFF is the largest film festival in Ohio and among the longest-running in the United States. The festival is held at Playhouse Square, the lar ...
in March 1999, and at the New York Women's Film Festival on April 22, 1999. The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States, premiering in Los Angeles on November 3, 2000. It was later aired in San Francisco starting on January 19, 2001, and in New York City on January 26, 2001. It was released on Region 1 DVD by Arrow Releasing on December 4, 2001.


Reception

By the end of its theatrical run on February 8, 2001, ''Restless'' had a gross earnings of $18,154 in the United States. It received generally negative reviews from American film critics. At ''
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
'', which assigns a
normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 39 based on 10 reviews. Ken Eisner of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' thought the performances and script were good, and that the film would appeal to Mandarin-speaking areas of the world. Laura Kelly of the ''
South Florida Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Broward County, an ...
'' drew comparisons to ''
Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...
'', but called ''Restless'' "less smart and less overtly sexual". She also called the film clichéd and noted that its parallel storylines expressed redundant themes. Dennis Lim of ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' noted that Gilfillan relies on "rote culture-clash pratfalls" and fails to deliver on any of its promised storylines. Several critics noted the good use of Beijing scenery, and that ''Restless'' exposes some settings in Beijing that viewers might not otherwise see.


Soundtrack

*"
Restless Restless or The Restless may refer to: Film and television * ''Restless'' (1998 film), a Chinese-American romance film * ''Restless'' (2000 film), a Finnish romantic film * ''The Restless'' (2006 film), a South Korean fantasy film * ''Restless'' ...
" by
Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; pinyin: ''Wáng Fēi''; born 8 August 1969) is a Chinese singer-songwriter and actress. Early in her career, she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong (). Born in Beijing, she moved to British Hong Kong at the age o ...
— opening song


References


External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0183700, title=Restless 1998 films Chinese romantic drama films Films about Chinese Americans Films about interracial romance Films set in Beijing Films shot in Beijing 1990s English-language films American romantic drama films