| SYNOPSIS __________
Plot:
The feature film debut of renowned opera and theater director
Chen Shi-Zheng, Dark Matter delves into the world of Liu Xing
(Chinese for "Shooting Star"), a Chinese science
student pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States in the early
1990s. Driven by ambition, yet unable to navigate academic
politics, Liu Xing is inexorably pushed to the margins of
American life, until he loses his way.
Liu Xing (Liu Ye) arrives at a big Western university with
plans to study the origins of the universe. At first, his
experience is a heady rush of expectation and optimism. He
finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment with
him, and flirts with an attractive American girl who works
in a local tea shop. When the head of the department, Jacob
Reiser (Aidan Quinn), welcomes Liu Xing into his select cosmology
group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and
a bright future in American science. At an orientation for
foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver (Meryl
Streep), a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest
student. An unspoken bond forms between them.
Liu Xing becomes Reiser's protege, accompanying him to a
prestigious conference where he makes an impressive debut.
He is drawn to the study of dark matter, an unseen substance
that shapes the universe, but it soon becomes clear that his
developing theories threaten Reiser's conflicting theories
and well-established studies. Excited by the possibility of
a breakthrough, Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must
first pay his dues. When he is eclipsed within the department
by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, Liu Xing is forced
to go behind Reiser's back to publish his discoveries. When
the article draws ire instead of accolades, he turns to Joanna,
who naively encourages him on his collision course.
Liu Xing clings to the idea of American science as a free
market of ideas, and American society as wide open to immigrants.
But in the end, his dissertation is rejected, and the girl
in the tea shop brushes him off. His roommates find jobs,
leaving him behind. Too proud to accept help from Joanna,
and unwilling to return home to his parents, Liu Xing becomes
a ghost-like presence at the university. Left alone with his
shattered dreams, he explodes in a final act of violence.
Inspired by actual events, Dark Matter was written by Billy
Shebar with a story by Shebar and Chen Shi-Zheng. The film
was financed by American Sterling Productions, and produced
by Janet Yang of American Sterling Productions and Mary Salter
and Andrea Miller of Saltmill LLC. Kirk D'Amico and Linda
Chiu are executive producers. Dark Matter was the Alfred P.
Sloan prize winner at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
DETAILS__________
Studio:
First Independent Pictures
Production Co:
American Sterling Productions
In Association With
SaltMill, LLC
Release Date:
April 11, 2008 (NY, Boston)
April 18, 2008 (LA, Austin)
RELATED LINKS__________
Wikipedia - Movie Info
en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia - Director Info
en.wikipedia.org
MySpace Page
www.myspace.com/darkmattermovie
Misc Info
festival.asianamericanmedia.org
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