Celestial Avenue: The Tao of Asiaphilia

I recently managed to get my hands on the screener for a wonderful short film called Celestial Avenue (2009) that is currently making the festival rounds. Directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, it's a loving poke at Asiaphilia that reminded me of the equally charming Augustin, King of Kung-Fu (1999), which Maggie Cheung made when she moved to France.

I was quite surprised to see that Celestial Avenue was rated so poorly on IMDB. Out of 25 reviewers, 19 gave it a 1. Yikes! I'm not sure how anyone could hate it that much. Maybe it stirred up some violent PC reaction. At the other end of the scale, two gave it an 8, one gave it a 9, and three gave it a 10. I guess you either love it or you hate it. Well, I have no problem placing myself in the minority on this one. As a gweilo who watches mostly Chinese films — including unsubtitled Cantonese films from the 1960s that I can't understand! — I'm certainly accustomed to feeling out of touch with the majority.

Just for the record, Celestial Avenue has won a Silver Award from the Australian Cinematographers Society (the film is beautifully shot) and a Grand Prize for Best Short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. And I was just informed by director Colin Cairnes that the film has also won the Madman Award for Best Australian Film at Sydney's Flickerfest.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil the story in case you do get a chance to see it. Let me just quote the PR synopsis to give you an idea of what Celestial Avenue is about.

Kath has been looking for love in all the wrong places. Then, she finds herself in Chinatown. In the middle of a less than successful blind date, she overhears the soulful Cantonese singing of kitchen-hand, Ah Gong. Kath is intrigued. But is there more to Ah Gong than meets the eye?

CELESTIAL AVENUE is an offbeat tale – part karaoke video, part cross-cultural comedy – about love, personal reinvention and startled pigeon.

This weekend the film is playing at Slamdance, so check it out if you're in Park City. Otherwise, look for it at your local film festival and keep your fingers crossed that it will be available for online viewing sometime in the not so distant future. Until then, here's the trailer.