BLUE SUN PALACE
(director/writer: Constance Tsang; cinematographer: Norm Li; Editor; editor: Caitlin Carr; music: Sami Jano; cast: Ke-Xi Wu (Amy), Lee Kang Sheng (Cheung), Yvonne YF Chan (Amy’s mother), Wang Guiping (Ping), Zachary Zamsky (Massage Client), Haixpeng Xu (Didi), Damian Brown (Massage Client); Runtime: 117; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Sally Sujin Oh, Eli Raskin, Tony Yang; Dekanalog; 2024-mostly in Mandarin & English, with English subtitles)
“Observant mood piece on loss, grief and self-worth.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Writer-director Constance Tsang makes her feature debut an assertive one about the challenging lives of struggling Chinese immigrants involved in a massage parlor in Flushing, Queens. It’s a slow-moving, muted and observant mood piece on loss, grief and self-worth.
Cheung (Lee Kang Sheng) is a quiet, married Taiwanese immigrant who has a menial job and regularly sends money back to his wife, his daughter and his mother. Though not a bad guy he still has many faults that include cheating on his wife and not sending the full amount of money to his family.
He’s first seen on a dinner date at the Blue Sun Palace Chinese restaurant with Didi (Haipeng Xu), who works in a Flushing massage parlor as a masseuse. The parlor is frequented by mostly white men looking for sex in this so-called respectable establishment that deals with a lot of pervs. Didi and Cheung have a friendly sexual relationship based on both their needs for companionship and support.
Didi’s closest friend Amy (Ke-Xi Wu) also works at the parlor. They regularly talk together about their dreams and their plans to one day move to Baltimore and open a restaurant. Didi’s daughter lives there with her aunt.
During the Lunar Year, the massage parlor undergoes a tragedy, and the film turns into a tale about dealing with the murder of Didi.
Cheung befriends Amy, and takes her to the same restaurant where he took Didi. But Amy is not Didi.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 7/21/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com