Feature Film
: A romantic comedy set in a Chinese laundry in Liverpool in 1962. Deco Films and TV for BBC / ACE / Deco Film & Television Production.
Liverpool 1962. PEGGY SU is nineteen and lives with her brother JACK and sister-in-law RITA. The Beatles and Liverpool have started to hit the big-time but you wouldn't know it from the daily lives of the SU'S. They live together above JACK'S Chinese laundry and dream of a brighter future. JACK imagines owning the best laundry in England; RITA longs for the glamorous jet-set life; PEGGY doesn't know what she wants but it isn't a Liverpool laundry.
Then a bombshell hits. JACK and PEGGY'S revered and honoured father is to visit them from Hong Kong, bringing with him his new wife and a hand-picked present for PEGGY her husband-to-be, GILBERT. When DAD arrives, they are amazed to find that his new wife is a twenty-eight year old Chinese Jackie Kennedy wannabee who insists on being called JACKIE AH. GILBERT is an even bigger shock for PEGGY. He is quite simply a disaster ? accident-prone, socially inept and ugly.
With the help of her wise, but inscrutable aunt, YEE MAH, PEGGY sets out to find an alternative husband before DAD forces her to marry cousin GILBERT. When she meets David, the suave son of a prosperous Chinese restaurant owner, things start looking up, PEGGY even takes up dance lessons in order to impress him. As fast as GILBERT destroys JACK'S laundry through his clumsy efforts to help, DAVID does everything to win over PEGGY and finally DAD.
Everyone seems happy as PEGGY and DAVID head up the aisle, but a last minute discovery means that they never quite make it.
Excerpts from Reviews
