Just such a feature film, Milk and Fashion, set in
Shanghai, will be released in China in March, thereafter in other
Asian countries and the United States. The premiere party was held
late last week at the Paramount in Shanghai.
The drama romance is about cultural differences and acceptance,
friendship, ballet and fashion in China's fashion capital,
Shanghai.
It stars Jeremy Miller, a former child actor of the 1980s US
sitcom Growing Pains, Vanessa Branch, a British actress
from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Kyle Rothstein, who
played Harlequin in The White Countess.
Rothstein, 16, who lives in Shanghai, and Branch are fluent
speakers of Mandarin. Shanghai-based Jay Rothstein, Kyle's father,
is the producer. Taiwanese film maker Roy K. Chin is the
director.
Growing Pains was enormously popular in China and was
one of the few imported US films at that time. Miller, now 31, is
also famous and beloved for his role. He speaks little Chinese.
"It is the first time in Chinese film history that leading
actors and actresses are all played by non-native speakers,"
director Chin said at the film's premiere party last Thursday.
The story centers on young American Tyler Ralstin (Kyle
Rothstein) who grows up with his anthropologist father in rural
Yunnan Province on China's border with Myanmar. Though he speaks
fluent Chinese, the youth is an outcast, rejected by Chinese kids.
He travels to Shanghai to live with his uncle Jack (Jeremy Miller),
president of a cultural investment company that is sponsoring an
international fashion contest.
One of the competing designers is Yao Yao (Michelle Du), a
former ballerina who is pursuing her dream of becoming a
professional designer. The two, of course, fall in love.
At first Ralstin and Yao are at a loss about each other and
their direction, but they find a friend and mentor named Anna
(Vanessa Branch), an international fashion magazine editor. She
helps Yao realize her dream.
The title "Milk and Fashion" has several layers of meaning, says
director Roy. "Milk" is main character Ralstin's nickname because
he likes to drink milk. "Fashion" is Yao's nickname, and it is the
fashion contest that drives the story.
On a deeper level, "milk" stands for the essence of life, while
"fashion" stands for the desires and efforts to achieve them, he
says. The idea is that pursuit of goodness should be the foundation
of an meaningful society.
Young Rothstein himself is trained in ballet. The film is
inspired by his performance with the San Francisco Ballet in 2002
at the Shanghai Grand Theater.
As Miller was not able to show up at the premiere, Rothstein was
in the spotlight and his command of Chinese startled the audience.
Fluent Mandarin from a Caucasian is unusual indeed.
At the age of five, Rothstein began his studies at the Chinese
American International School in San Francisco. At that time, it
was the only US bilingual school where the second language was
Chinese.
"I was doing business in China at that time and took my son
along so that he could practice his Chinese," his producer father
says. "He used to come to China about three times a year. By the
age of eight he even translated for me."
As part of the international cast, Branch came to Shanghai for
filming early last year. She is a graduate of Middlebury College in
the US state of Vermont, where she double majored in Chinese and
theater. She speaks fluent Chinese throughout the film.
"She is the first non-Asian Hollywood actress to star in a
Chinese-speaking lead role," says director Roy. "In a film set in
the high society of Shanghai's buzzing fashion world, Branch weaves
her character seamlessly through a story of style, glamor and
personal triumph."
After Milk and Fashion, China Venture Films' next
feature is Distance Runners, about athletes from five
countries coming to China to compete in a 166-kilometer
ultra-marathon race. It is set in the mountains of Shangri-La in
Yunnan Province.
"It's the next stage for China Venture Films in uniting cultures
through the media of film," says the producer. The elder Rothstein
plans to assemble an international team of actors and crew and
says, "it will be 100-percent in the Chinese language."
(Shanghai Daily January 22, 2008)