London Film Festival Review: High Wire – “It’s an impressive and personal debut by Calif Chong”

The circus coming to town is a chance to dream big for a young British Chinese woman in Calif Chong’s debut feature High Wire. Roller-skate-loving teenager Go Wing (Isabella Wei) lives in rural Yorkshire and helps at her dad’s takeaway. A delivery to the Starz Circus lights a fire, and she quickly talks her way into training with them. Meanwhile, her dad, Au San-ding (Ka Wa Lam) has no idea she’s dropped out of studying law.

Inter-generational and familial dynamics are where the film flows most naturally, as characters chat in Cantonese at home. And there is a very sweet and believable father-daughter relationship at the heart of High Wire. Both are grieving the loss of Go Wing’s mother, Ling (Elizabeth Tan) – seen in slightly soapy flashbacks. Ling was a figure skating champion –it becomes clear Go Wing has inherited her mother’s desire for adventure.

The title alludes to the duality at the heart of Go Wing’s life, the push and pull between duty and autonomy. An attempt at a romantic set-up by Auntie Lee has an unexpected benefit. Her would-be suitor is gay and hiding it from his family. Go Wing will keep his secret in exchange for a cover story of a corporate internship. Initially, her dad falls for the ruse, quipping, “It’s like I always say, nepotism is better than an education.”

Plot-wise, it hits a lot of familiar coming-of-age beats, albeit one that centres on East Asian culture, and there is a superb ensemble cast as well as a strong dynamic between Go Wing and her father. The subplots around both overt racism and the microaggressions from white friends are also explored, but the script occasionally suffers from too much exposition.

Although the focus is very much the Chinese diaspora, the circus is home to other immigrant performers too, including charismatic Venezuelan circus leader, Hendrick Garcia (Jose Palma), who trains her to walk the high wire. The film’s set pieces are impressively shot and bursting with colour thanks to Matthew P. Scott’s cinematography. The scenes also feature an international cast of circus performers. Isabella Wei’s performance gives the film its emotional heft, and the circus becomes a second home, rather than somewhere she has to run away to.

It’s an impressive and personal debut by Calif Chong, filled with heart and humour and big dreams.