How wonderful to see Red Eye on ITVX, the thriller starring Jing Lusi (陸思敬). It’s the first time in decades I’ve seen a British police drama led by an actor of Chinese descent—the last time that I recall was 1981, when Scouse-born David Yip starred in The Chinese Detective.
I agree with Jing Lusi that this was ground-breaking, and a chance to see east Asian faces represented respectfully on television. She wasn’t the “other”: she was the main character, and you the story unfold through her eyes. Co-starring Richard Armitage, with which she had to share top billing in the titles (they’re not that confident in Britain yet to let a woman of Chinese descent lead by herself, it seems; cf. the younger Holliday Grainger in The Capture), Lu’s character of DC Hana Li stays true to herself as a dedicated police officer carrying out her duty, and keeping her wits about her.
It didn’t stop one female reviewer in another publication wondering if Armitage’s and Lu’s characters might wind up romantically, something which I am glad didn’t happen. We’ve had enough films and TV shows carry out some orientalist fantasy where the Asian woman must get together with a man to somehow show development or progression. She’s a bloody good cop—and isn’t that the point?
Peter A. Dowling should be commended for his efforts, incorporating some of Li’s Chinese culture into the script, and for not playing favourites with the UK, US or China when it came to the storyline. There’s no kowtowing to anyone here: every nation has its share of skeletons.
Lu sidesteps speaking any Cantonese or Mandarin with her character emigrating to Britain as a child (the actress herself is Shanghai-born and also emigrated at a young age), with subsidiary characters on the plane having some lines in Mandarin and Dave Wong as Hana’s Hong Kong expat father speaking some lines in Cantonese. Lingustically, I found it respectful, too—in line with what you might find in reality, but not alienating an Anglophone audience.
I would like to see the ongoing adventures of DC Hana Li, though no decision has been made by ITVX. If it does get renewed, writers and producers, she doesn’t need a man to validate her existence.
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.
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