{"id":84595,"date":"2026-09-13T13:50:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84595"},"modified":"2026-09-13T13:50:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:50:58","slug":"authentic-chinese-canadian-directors-queer-love-story-starring-joan-chen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84595","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Authentic\u2019: Chinese-Canadian director\u2019s queer love story starring Joan Chen"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Director Xiaodan He immigrated from China to Montreal, Canada, 24 years ago. While many of her previous film projects were filmed in China, she returned to the French-speaking city for her newest film, Montreal, My Beautiful<\/em> (2025).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was very simple: I just really wanted to shoot a film in Montreal because I hadn\u2019t done so yet,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it feels very cinematic, and through my eyes, it would look very beautiful on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old Chinese-Canadian filmmaker did not just write and direct Montreal, My Beautiful<\/em>, but is also the founder of the film\u2019s production company, Red Dawn Productions.<\/p>\n

The film follows Feng Xia \u2013 played by legendary actress Joan Chen<\/span> \u2013 a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant running a small Montreal convenience store and trapped in a loveless marriage.<\/div>\n

Her quiet life begins to shift as she begins taking French language classes and falls in love with a younger Quebecoise woman. Towards the end of the film, Feng Xia must decide between returning to China or staying in Canada, and remaining in her marriage or being with her new lover.<\/p>\n

The film is, in many ways, a love letter to Montreal. It would have been an entirely different story were it set in any other Canadian city. \u201cEven the title wouldn\u2019t make sense \u2013 \u2018Toronto, My Beautiful\u2019 sounds a bit weird, right?\u201d He says, laughing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Director Xiaodan He immigrated from China to Montreal, Canada, 24 years ago. While many of her previous film projects were filmed in China, she returned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[252,8566,22715,3737,28595,772,6775,4733,1199],"class_list":["post-84595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-authentic","tag-chen","tag-chinesecanadian","tag-directors","tag-joan","tag-love","tag-queer","tag-starring","tag-story","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}