33 Postcards (2011)

Dean Randall has sponsored Mei Mei, a young Chinese orphan, for many years. When she arrives in Sydney out of the blue to thank him, their lives are changed forever.

Director:

Pauline Chan

Writers:

Pauline Chan, Philip Dalkin

Stars:

Guy Pearce, Zhu Lin, Claudia Karvan

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Guy Pearce	...	Dean Randall
Zhu Lin	...	Mei Mei
Claudia Karvan	...	Barbara
Elaine Jin	...	Miss Chen
Rhys Muldoon	...	Gary
Lincoln Lewis	...	Carl
Terry Serio	...	Fletch
Matt Nable	...	Tommy (as Matthew Nable)
Kain O'Keeffe	...	Dave
Claire Scott	...	Ruby
Clayton Watson	...	Brian
Xiang-Yun Lin	...	Miss Fong
Gary Xu	...	Orphanage Worker
Colin Burkenshaw	...	Deputy Director
Thomas Jackson	...	Constable Dillon

Storyline

Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) a 16 yr old Chinese orphan dreams of nothing more than being part of the 'perfect' family. When her orphanage travels to Australia to partake in The Australian Choir Festival Mei Mei takes the opportunity to find her Australian sponsor Dean Randall (Guy Pearce). However what she finds is far from what he depicted. Initially mismatched and disconnected the two begin a journey in search of belonging, family, redemption, love and acceptance.

---

Plot Keywords:

australian | chinese | sponsor | orphanage | australia | 

---

Taglines:

Wishing you were here

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

China Australia

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

15 April 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

33 открытки

Filming Locations:

Gladesville, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD3,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,547

Company Credits

Production Co:

Portal Pictures, Zhejiang Hengdian Film Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Ding Ding Dong
(Traditional)
Performed by The Wenzhou Children's Choir

User Reviews

A beautiful idea, a beautiful start, and a catastrophic collapse into incomprehensible motivations

This film was beautifully conceived, and started well. The characters are deft, subtle, and well-played by the excellent cast.

Leading into the last act, though, the characters start behaving erratically, with no discernible motivation. Sadly, the movie overall fails to recover, and it ends up being a frustrating experience. A great deal of potential, squandered in an apparent attempt to generate conflict, which in the end feels unbelievable.

Worth a watch, if you like any of the actors in particular, as their performances are still quite good, even from newcomer Zhu Lin as the delightfully naive-yet-savvy Mei Mei ("Little Sister").