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- Sundance
- Dec 5, 2014
- Sundance
- Dec 5, 2014
Summary The drama written by written by Guy Hibbert takes a look at the issues of identity and family when Mei Arthurton (Katie Leung), who was adopted by a British couple as a child, is asked by her Chinese birth mother to return to Guangzhou to help save her brother.
- Sundance
- Dec 5, 2014
- Sundance
- Dec 5, 2014
One Child
Season 1
Season Premiere: Dec 5, 2014
60
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary The drama written by written by Guy Hibbert takes a look at the issues of identity and family when Mei Arthurton (Katie Leung), who was adopted by a British couple as a child, is asked by her Chinese birth mother to return to Guangzhou to help save her brother.
Where to Watch
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
60
44% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
22% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
60
44% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
22% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
There’s a considerable amount of restraint in the story’s telling.... Precisely because of its unflinching grimness, One Child is one of the most successful critiques of a broken system.
This isn't an easy movie to watch, but even at its most bleak, the scenes between the long-estranged mother and daughter are beyond poignant as they find common purpose.
User Reviews
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Scenes of Mei trying to reconnect with her past has a few clever touches.... But it also has enough clunky dialogue, poor production values, and sluggish pacing to alienate viewers, too. [5 Dec 2014, p.77]
If it’s a flawed exploration of the old nature-vs.-nurture debate, the players and Mei’s predicament consistently make it interesting.
One Child spends too much time running in place--which may reflect China’s inert bureaucracy, but falls short of riveting viewing.
For all its clear outrage, One Child presents absolutely zero challenging ideas of what to do in reaction to these sort of crimes against humanity, other than to ostensibly deal with it.
Both the writing and the directing fall short in One Child, leaving good actors to work with material that’s mostly not there and viewers reminded of the fact that good intentions are not always enough.
