This is Sanlitun – The Movie That Every Expat Should See

When my best friend told me that she is coming to visit me in Beijing I was super excited! So like I always do when my friends are coming for a visit, I started planning our trip in Beijing together. After going to the same touristic places, I’ve decided to look for some new cool things for her visit, and then I found out about the premiere of “This Is Sanlitun”, which is the neighborhood where I live in Beijing.

I said what the heck, it couldn’t get wrong: a foreign movie, in English, about expat who lives in my neighborhood must be a short version of my life.

It wasn’t really about my life, but more a bad hilarious version of expats who live in Beijing and the people who surround them. We couldn’t stop laughing the whole movie! After the movie, I was so pleased, that I took my friend with me that I said to myself, every expat around the world – and especially in China – have to see this movie too!

The movie is about an English guy named Gerry that comes to China to be a successful business man, sure that he’s going to conquer China with some special skills and what not. So he has this hair product that helps the hair grow, but he’s bold, so he puts a wig on his head and goes to hair salons to sale them the product. After this business fails, he starts to teach English (like almost every second foreigner in China that is trying to make some money). At school he starts having this crazy Chinese girl stalking him everywhere he goes..

Yaya (my husband) with Frank (Chris Loton) – my favorite character in the movie; at the premiere in Beijing.

And it’s get even weirder as he has a Chinese ex-wife from long time ago who’s raising their child. She doesn’t want to see him, and every time he tries to contact with her to bring her back, the stalker interrupts him or something else bad happens to him.

My favorite character is Gerry’s “friend” Frank, who thinks he’s Chinese because of living in China for a long time but he is actually very much an Australian who still has all the foreigner habits, but pretends they are totally Chinese. He is just a hilarious character – I couldn’t stop laughing.

The cool part is none of the actors from the movie are real actors, this is their first gig and they are all so good!

I really recommend to watch this film, and now it’s even release online, check it out.

Enjoy! 🙂