Writers: Calif Chong
Director: Calif Chong and Jackie Lam
A novel take on a British immigrant narrative, High Wire suffers from ambitions beyond its budget as a second-generation Hong Kong woman seeks refuge in the circus. Calif Chong’s carefully made film is an engaging watch, but its sentimentality seems a little too familiar despite the presence of the Big Top pitched in a Yorkshire village.
Go-wing is struggling to finish her law degree and work every night in her father’s Chinese takeaway. She’s already missed one important exam, and the university wants money if she is to resit it. Each evening, she must take orders from drunken customers and field racially-motivated telephone calls. She has a list of phone numbers from suspected prank callers. But one day, a circus comes to town.
When she cycles in the middle of the night to deliver the circus performers’ food, Go-wing discovers that they are holding auditions in a few days and one of the acrobats suggests that she try out on her roller-skates. She gets the gig, but soon sets her aim higher. Can she somehow roller skate on the high wire?
But Go-wing’s father wants her to be a lawyer; he came to Britain so that his family would have a better life. His late wife – Go-wing’s mother – gave up her career as a World Champion figure skater when she reached Britain. So as not to disappoint her father, Go-wing begins a life of subterfuge.
She’s aided in this deception by Eddie, the son of her father’s friend. As she has discovered that he is gay, Go-wing initially blackmails him into pretending that he has found an internship for her, ferrying her to the circus and helping out in her father’s kitchen. This act of blackmail is conveniently brushed aside when the pair become friends, but it still leaves a bitter taste for the viewer.
In the midst of all this work – circus training, working at the takeaway in the evening and studying after the shop closes – Go-wing struggles to maintain a social life. Her so-called friends, apart from one, are racist bullies, and an argument at a party escalates into a hate crime. It’s not worth calling the police, Go-wing surmises, as they will do nothing.
The prejudices of a small town and the expectations placed on East-Asian children are captured well in High Wire. Isabella Wei leads the cast with a sensitive portrayal of a young woman battling to be accepted in the world. She carries the film completely. There is good work, too, from Ka-Wah Lam, who is both funny and moving in his role as the father. Occasionally, his character dips into caricature, but Lam gives him enough warmth that the viewer doesn’t mind too much.
However, the circus scenes are less convincing. It’s best not to worry about why a circus would overwinter in a North Yorkshire village or why there are so few performers in the troupe. Still, Alina Kovalenko brings a laconic presence to her role as Bori. The showstopping finale is underwhelming and appears to have been filmed somewhere else entirely, probably on a computer. More exciting than the trick on the high wire is the curtain call.
High Wire is an impressive debut feature for Chong, but the idea that an outcast will only find solace in a community of other outcasts who live in a circus is a tired metaphor.
High Wire is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
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