Little Fish (2005)

Set in the Little Saigon district outside of Sydney, a woman (Blanchett) trying to escape her past becomes embroiled in a drug deal.

Director:

Rowan Woods

Writer:

Jacquelin Perske

Stars:

Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving

12 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cate Blanchett	...	Tracy
Sam Neill	...	The Jockey
Hugo Weaving	...	Lionel
Martin Henderson	...	Ray
Noni Hazlehurst	...	Janelle
Dustin Nguyen	...	Jonny
Joel Tobeck	...	Moss
Lisa McCune	...	Laura
Susie Porter	...	Jenny
Nina Liu	...	Mai
Linda Cropper	...	Denise
Daniela Farinacci	...	Donna
Ferdinand Hoang	...	Khiem
Anh Do	...	Tran
Jason Chong	...	Mingh

Storyline

In Sydney, Tracey Heart is a thirty-two years old manager of a video shop ex-addicted in heroin and clean for four years. She is trying to raise forty thousand dollars to buy a shop for computer games on the next door of the rental and become partner of her boss, but based on her negative records, the banks deny the loan. Tracey takes care of her junkie stepfather Lionel Dawson, unsuccessfully trying to make him quit his heroin habit. When her former boy-friend Jonny returns from Vancouver, Tracey's mother Janelle fears a fall of Tracey, while she blames Jonny for the car accident where her son Ray lost one leg. When Ray and Jonny associate to Moss, the assistant of the retired criminal boss Bradley 'The Jockey' Thompson, in drug dealing, Tracey is convinced by Jonny to join them and raise the necessary money for her business along the weekend.

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Plot Keywords:

heroin | drugs | junkie | drug dealing | bank | 

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Taglines:

The past is right here

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, drug content and brief sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Australia

Language:

Vietnamese English

Release Date:

8 September 2005 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Dag katan

Filming Locations:

Bankstown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£51,233 (UK) (21 July 2006)

Gross:

£112,829 (UK) (28 July 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Porchlight Films, Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC), Mullis Capital Independent

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the characters was originally meant to have been gone for a few years in Hong Kong. However, after shooting, they realized that the actor had a slightly American accent, so changed all references to Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada.

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Quotes

Janelle: She's doing great. She opening her own shop.
Tracy Heart: Mum. I going into partnership with Min who I work for at the video shop. they're expanding into internet online gaming.

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Connections

Features Farscape (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Chuyen Hoa Sim"
Music by Anh Bang/Poetry by Huu Loan
Performed by Khu Quynh
Courtesy of Asia Music Corporation
Published by Control

User Reviews

Disturbingly Honest

It's a disturbingly honest film portraying a hauntingly familiar life and how it is affected by the seamy drug/underworld of Sydney's Asian community. That's not to say that only the Asian community has drug and underworld problems, but it makes for an interesting and colourful backdrop for a complicated but compelling story. In fact, even now two hours after we left the cinema, I'm still mildly troubled by the seeming hopelessness of the confused lives portrayed. It was so real, so close to the bone. The characters could easily be you, or me. As another reviewer stated:

"There's no light-the tunnel goes on forever." A pretty accurate assessment.

I've heard it said that for Blanchett and Weaving their performances rank as personal bests, but I'm not all that sure I'd go that far with Weavings. He was good, very, very good as the broken-down drug-ridden ex-football star but Blanchett's performance as the reformed addict desperately trying to get her life together, to set up her own business and actually resurrect something from the pathetic life she has, was absolutely amazing. Her character is both complex and simplistic all at once. You can detest and love her, feel sympathy and disdain and find by movie's end you're aware that she could so easily be you.

Included in the cast as perennials the likes of Noni Hazlehurst, Lisa McCune and Sam Neill all played sound parts but not a patch on the leads. The balance of the cast are movie journeymen/women who have many and varied backgrounds. None were overly outstanding, although I found the character of Jonny, Blanchett's former boyfriend played by Dustin Nguyen to be quite well done. He disgusted me for what he was and what he wanted to be and that's the actors art.

Go and see this flick. It's an outstanding example of the Australian film industry's capabilities. I rate it 8 out of 10.