A modest but well-observed green-card movie set among the Chinese and Italian communities in Lower Manhattan, Siao yu manages to hit more emotional truths than many flashier cross-cultural pics that play to the gallery. Featuring engaging perfs from Taiwanese newcomer René Liu and the seasoned Dante J. Travanti, as a young mainlander and her middle-aged ticket to legality, Sylvia Chang's best movie in a while deserves exposure in Asia-friendly fests and discerning tube spots. Project was originally slated for Ang Lee to direct following Eat Drink Man Woman, but Chang stepped in at a relatively late stage, wrapping the entire picture in New York in some 26 days. Siao-yu (Liu) and her b.f., Jiang Wei (Tou Chung-hua) are illegals in N.Y. - she a seamstress in a sweatshop and he a student working in a fish market. Fate plays them a lucky hand when Italo-American Mario (Travanti), strapped by gambling debts, agrees to a green-card marriage to Siao-yu ("Little Fish") for a quick 10 grand. Based on a novel by mainland-born Yan Geling, script has a gentle compassion that sits well with Chang's earlier movies, but is here anchored to much sharper dialogue. Chinese and US players mesh easily, with Travanti especially good as the burned-out journo and Liu handling her bilingual chores with considerable assurance.
Derek Elley