The Art of Escape

A 23-year-old Canadian wanders aimlessly throughout his wasted life.

In the wake of China's open-door policy in the early 1980's, Fujian was one of the first Chinese coastal provinces to be opened to the outside world. Many of the male residents opted to go abroad for work, leaving behind their wives and families. Two decades later, Fujian is a microcosm of Chinese modernity: there are palatial suburbs populated by lonely "remittance widows"; neon-lit discotheques frequented by karaoke kids; coastal villages inhabited by impoverished fishermen and city centers dominated by gangs, snakeheads and language schools acting as fronts for organized human trafficking. The Neon Knights-Amerika, Roppongi and their friends, so nicknamed because of the places their emigrÄ- fathers live-use their imported digital video-cameras to film wealthy remittance widows in trysts with their local lovers. They then proceed to blackmail the women, and use the proceeds to finance a night-life of drink, drugs, girls and karaoke. Amerika is the mastermind of the scheme, Roppongi (a.k.a. "The Playa") is the seducer and Dragon and the others act as bag-men. But when Amerika discovers that his own mother has taken a lover and decides to blackmail her, the gang is forced to take a stand... Dragon, a young man from a poor fishing village, is an exception to the rule. He participates in the blackmail in hopes of earning some money to help pay off his brother's emigration debt, send his younger sister to private school and provide his parents with a better life. After he runs into some trouble and decides to hide out in his hometown, the gang entrusts him with a precious cargo. The fate of this mysterious cargo may well determine Dragon's future...

Accused of killing her violent former husband, Anne must prove her innocence all on her own.

Highly decorated for her service as a wartime nurse, Mrs. Nancy Fair returns home after the hostilities to find her family falling apart. Nevertheless, she goes on a lecture tour in hopes of doing more good. Her second homecoming finds Mr. Fair involved in an affair with Angy Brice, a neighboring widow; her son, Alan, married and in bad company; and her daughter, Sylvia, eloped. The search for Sylvia brings Mrs. Fair to her senses and reunites the family.