Lucky Lu
In Lucky Lu, Lloyd Lee Choi expands his 2022 short Same Old into a bruising feature debut. Set in a New York City rendered in asphalt greys and sickly fluorescent light, the film follows Lu Jiacheng (Chang Chen), a Chinese immigrant and delivery driver whose already precarious life spirals into freefall when his e-bike is stolen.
Unlike the more familiar narratives of immigrant ambition and assimilation, Lucky Lu focuses on the forgotten middle passage of that journey – not the hopeful child or the wide-eyed student, but the weary workhorse who paves the way. Lu isn’t building a new life; he’s scrambling to catch up to it. His wife, Si Yu (Fala Chen), and young daughter, Yaya (Carabelle Manna Wei), are due to arrive, and with no bike and no money, the apartment he’s scrimped for may soon slip through his fingers.
The film is shot in a palette of washed-out blues and encroaching shadows. The bustling Chinatown restaurants Lu enters and exits – spaces so often romanticised in immigrant narratives – feel cold and impersonal; these are not places of belonging, but of transaction. Choi leans into this aesthetic, and it suits the tone. The apartment – modest by most standards but expansive by New York’s – feels cavernous and empty. Its only splash of colour comes from the fish tank, which immediately captivates Yaya: a fragile, self-contained world of its own.
And yet, amidst Choi’s stark portrayal, faint sparks of hope still emerge. In Yaya, we glimpse a child on the cusp of reinvention. Insisting on being called by her new English name, she stumbles into an open house showcasing a lavish brownstone with magazine-worthy furnishings – a flash of the traditional American Dream, glossy and untouched. The moment borders on magical realism, offering a fleeting glimpse of something better as her father’s world unravels outside. It’s in these quiet contrasts – between father and daughter, between disillusionment and possibility – that the film finds its meaning.
Lu may be racing against time, but Lucky Lu moves at its own pace – sombre, deliberate and clear-eyed in its portrayal of a man laying the foundation for a dream he may never inhabit.
Christina Yang
Lucky Lu does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
RSS