Inspired by a true story
From one world to another
A brilliant Mind
A new life
A blinding ambition
They took his hopes
They took his dreams
until he could take no more......
This is the Dark Matter that controls the fate of the universe.
Meryl Streep: Ni hao
Meryl Streep: I’d like to propose a toast to our new Chinese students.
Meryl Streep: I just want to make a connection
LY: Just for success
Man: This is the highest score we ever had on the qualifying exams, you know that?
LY: Thank you, I am excited
Meryl Streep: You certainly are
Aidan Quinn: Welcome to the team
Aidan Quinn: This is excellent work, Liu Xing
LY: Thank you
Aidan Quinn: Now this is America
LY(to a gril): Do you like Chinese food?
Man: But we are all working for Reiser here
Aidan Quinn: Are you out of your mind, this is way over your head
LY: But but….
Aidan Quinn: I said absolutely no
Meryl Streep: Is there something you could do because he looks up to you so much?
Aidan Quinn: He is a brilliant guy. Unfortunately he’s not a team player
LY: Pa Ma, here is the money I saved in America
Girl: You are a really nice guy but I’m sorry
Aidan Quinn: You have to pay your dues first
Aidan Quinn: You work for me, don’t you?
Professional: It’s a highly original piece of work
Aidan Quinn: He’s an arrogant little bastard
Man: I’m afraid we can’t accept your dissertation until you re-do the computations
Liu Ye: Why you never tell this to me?
Man: Do it again
The feature film debut of renowned opera and theater director Chen Shi-Zheng, DARK MATTER delves into the world of Liu Xing (Chinese for “Shooting Star”), a Chinese science student pursuing a Ph.D in the US in the early 1990s. Driven by ambition, yet unable to navigate academic politics, Liu Xing is inexorably pushed to the margins of American life, until he loses his way.
Liu Xing (Liu Ye) arrives at a big Western university with plans to study the origins of the universe. In the beginning, everything is looking up. He finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment with him, and flirts with an attractive American girl who works in a local tea shop. When the head of the department, Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), welcomes Liu Xing into his select cosmology group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in American science. At an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest student. An unspoken bond forms between them.
Liu Xing becomes Reiser’s protégé, accompanying him to a prestigious conference where he makes an impressive debut. He is drawn to the study of dark matter, an unseen substance that shapes the universe, but it soon becomes clear that his developing theories threaten the Reiser Model. Excited by the possibility of a breakthrough, Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must first pay his dues. Soon he is eclipsed within the department by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, and is forced to go behind Reiser’s back to publish his discoveries. When the article draws ire instead of accolades, Liu Xing turns to Joanna, who naively encouarges him on his collision course.
Liu Xing clings to the idea of America science as a free market of ideas, and American society as wide open to immigrants. But in the end, his dissertation is rejected, and the girl in the tea shop brushes him off. His roommates find job, leaving him behind. Too proud to accept help from Joanna, and unwilling to return home to his parents, Liu Xing becomes a ghost-like presence in the university. Left alone with his shattered dreams, he explodes in a final act of violence.
Inspired by a real event, DARK MATTER has a screenplay by Billy Shebar and a story by Chen Shi-Zheng and Billy Shebar. The film was financed by American Sterling Productions and produced by Janet Yang of American Sterling Productions and Mary Salter and Andrea Miller of Saltmill LLC. Kirk D’Amico and Linda Chiu are executive producers.
Official Site：
http://www.darkmatterthefilm.com/
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