There’s a good film hiding in “Citizen Jia Li”. One about starting fresh and overcoming obstacles to better suit oneself. Jia Li (Claudia Teh), the titular citizen, is a sweet and endearing young woman who’s easy to root for. This makes her dramatic downfall (losing her job and apartment) easy to connect with. Add in the fish out of water aspect (she recently got her citizenship in Melbourne, Australia) and family issues with them moving there shortly and you have the makings for a decent little drama.
For awhile, it seems to building towards that. Sky Crompton handles his characters with care and fleshes them out. Not only do we get slight observations into Li’s family life, we get two hearty supporting characters who draw parallels to her. There’s Daisy (Susanna Qian), a perky co-worker at the salon who also lost her job, who encourages Jia to follow her dreams and not be weighed down by family issues. It turns out she lost her mother at a young age and has a seemingly rocky relationship with her father, so a different perspective works perfectly. Then there’s Jenny Chan (Christine Cao), a real estate agent and client of Jia’s who takes her under her wing.
There could be a good parallel between Jia and Jenny in the form of loneliness. Jenny came over to Australia in the eighties and was alone in the country. She found success by persevering and confiding in the Chinese community. She tries to convey these lessons to Jia, who understandably struggles to accept them. This would work better if it weren’t for the inclusion of another character.
That character would be Kong (Chris Pang), Jia’s abusive ex-boyfriend. He’s a drug dealer who prides himself on being the best and having the best. When Li can’t take him and his seedy career anymore, she calls it quits. This hurts not only his feelings, but his image. He vows to get her back, constantly stating that things aren’t over until he says they are.
I understand what Crompton was going for in adding this character. He wanted to give more depth to Jia, as well as another obstacle to conquer. The problem is this obstacle isn’t as appealing as the one that Jenny encountered. Furthermore, Kong himself isn’t that well developed and his interactions with Jia come off as too forced. His role unfortunately drags the film down and doesn’t add the tension it so desires. I didn’t want to see Li overcome him; I just wanted to see him disappear entirely.
It also doesn’t help that the resolution to his storyline is underwhelming, as is the ending in general. Again, I can see where Crompton was coming from, but the end result isn’t as satisfying as it should be. It does end a chapter in Jia’s life, but there are still some loose ends that need to be tied up. Not to mention I would’ve liked to see the next chapter in her life. I’m usually welcoming to films that run only seventy to eighty minutes, but this one could’ve used a bit more time to resolve it’s story.
I really wanted to like “Citizen Jia Li”. The titular character is very sweet and relatable and Sky finds a good balance between drama and humor. There’s a lighthearted tone throughout, especially with the Daisy character, that compliments the drama well. It’s the Kong storyline and rushed development in the back half that sours this film. It diminishes the impact and turns a gentle drama into subpar fare. It’s quite unfortunate.
Final Rating: C+