In Lloyd Lee Choi’s gripping debut film, we see how quickly the American dream can descend into a nightmare. After five years of setbacks, Chinese immigrant Lu (Chang Chen) is on the verge of achieving his goal of reuniting his family in NYC where he has settled. He has a new good-paying job as a delivery driver and he’s found the perfect apartment. But when his bike is stolen, his life quicky spirals out of control. Without the bike, Lu cannot work and without a job, he can’t make the final payment due on his new place. Cheng masterfully engenders sympathy for his sometimes-antagonistic character as he portrays Lu’s desperation to find his bike on a seemingly hopeless trek around the city while hiding how dire the situation is from his family. At a time when immigration is headline news across the US, Lucky Lu highlights the hardships immigrants endure to capture their slice of the American pie. —Bri’anna Moore
Lloyd Lee Choi
Lloyd Lee Choi is a Korean-Canadian writer-director based in Brooklyn. His debut feature, Lucky Lu, premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The feature is based on his short film, Same Old (2022), which premiered at Cannes in the main competition, going on to win a Special Jury Mention at TIFF and Best Short at Raindance. His next short, Closing Dynasty(2023), won multiple festival awards, including the Berlinale’s Silver Bear. He’s also a Sundance NHK Award and TIFF/CBC Screenwriters Award recipient for his feature script YAKULT AJUMMA (co-writer Lauren Moon) and TIFF/CJ ENM K-Story Award recipient for his script PRODIGY.