television review: ‘One youngster’

Falling squarely into what has become SundanceTV’s niche of spare, gradual-moving, decidedly bleak dramas, “One kid” yields a devastating portrait of China’s one-child policy and an adopted younger English girl’s sudden desire to connect along with her roots. Narratively uneven and now and then exasperating in the characters’ picks, this 4-hour miniseries nonetheless sets up a sobering situation, with Katie Leung (perfect identified for the “Harry Potter” motion pictures) as a scholar abruptly thrust into a lifestyles-or-dying scenario, looking to navigate a chinese gadget steeped in corruption. whereas a long way from excellent, the story not directly yields a powerful emotional wallop.

Raised in London through her adopted parents (Donald Sumpter, Elizabeth Perkins), Leung’s Mei is contacted with the aid of a chinese journalist (Linh-Dan Pham) who has tracked her right down to deliver some shocking information: After Mei was given up, her parents had a son (Sebastian So), who has been wrongly convicted of a homicide he didn’t commit, with the real killer having been spared due to his well-connected domestic.

even though Mei’s preliminary reaction, understandably, is to surprise what that you can think of impact she can have on the complaints, she agrees to trip to Guangzhou, the place she meets her mom (Mardy Ma, simply heartbreaking), who in their first awkward stumble upon can’t even deliver herself to have a look at her daughter. yet what Mei notion was a birthmark seems to have been a scar put there through mother, hoping it could enable her to identify the infant if she ever again.

with her brother sentenced to demise, Mei goes in regards to the job of seeking to convince witnesses to vary their perjured accounts, aided by means of the reporter, native activists and in the end an individual detective (Junix Inocian). As for why her presence is supposed to provide outcomes, the not-particularly-convincing idea is that a Westerner will have extra latitude to challenge the authorities than chinese language citizens would.

Mei’s parents are flummoxed by the entire affair, though her father rightly characterizes this because the defining second in his daughter’s existence, whereas mom simply worries that they’ll lose her. The schemes to assist, alternatively, constantly sound virtually absurdly half-baked, eventually requiring Mei to place herself at considerable risk — and face one ethical catch 22 situation after any other.

For all that, “One youngster” zeroes in on the uncooked emotion of the location in a compelling manner, from the mum’s grief and shame to Mei’s confusion to her brother’s virtually childlike belief that come what may his London-bred sister will be able to restoration the whole lot. And if it’s a fallacious exploration of the previous nature-vs.-nurture debate, the players and Mei’s crisis persistently make it attention-grabbing.

heavily subtitled, the miniseries — written by way of man Hibbert, and directed through John Alexander — promises a pointed commentary about the brutality of the chinese regime. coming on the heels of “The Honorable girl,” this newest BBC collaboration also additional establishes Sundance’s credentials as a channel exploring an indie film sensibility whereas looking to the cultural clashes that occur past U.S. borders in pursuit of compelling stories.

the result would possibly not be cheery or uplifting. however in a crowded field, credit Sundance with having once more found a technique to leave its mark.