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Bipolar. 2021. China. Directed by Queena Li. In Mandarin, Tibetan, Cantonese, English, French; English subtitles. 111 min.
In this continually surprising, stylistically wild road movie, a young singer-songwriter (played by Leah Dou, daughter of Cantonese pop superstar Faye Wong) arrives in Lhasa, Tibet with no articulated purpose. Reeling from a recent, mysterious trauma, she suddenly finds kinship, or perhaps inspiration, in the brightly colored rainbow lobster on display in a tiny aquarium in her hotel lobby. Soon she absconds with the supposedly holy crustacean to return it to the legendary waters where it was caught—halfway across the country. Beijing Film Academy alum Queena Li’s debut feature uses this peculiar scenario as a framework for an outlandishly moving, occasionally hallucinatory tale of becoming and self-actualization.
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