The Road to Mandalay

DVD Features

Bonus Short Film:

On the Border
Directed by Wei Shujun
China
Chinese with English subtitles

In a border village, a Chinese teenager of Korean descent aspires to emigrate to the homeland.

Discs: 1

• Highest Rating
  "Taiwan-based Burmese filmmaker Midi Z produces his best work yet with “The Road to Mandalay.” Following his big leap forward with “Ice Poison,” Midi Z has now delivered a tightly edited and emotionally rewarding drama that places him in the top rank of Asian social realists."
  Richard Kuipers, Variety
• Highest Rating
  "Thanks to Midi Z's brilliant command of visual metaphors and compassion for his subjects, [Mandalay] is elevated into an unnervingly immediate portrait of the human cost of displacement."
  Patrick Gamble, CineVue
• Highest Rating
  "Compassionate and honestly told, it is a real empathy machine of a movie. And, of course, you can't watch it without thinking of the desperate plight of Burma's Rohingya Muslims."
  Cath Clarke, The Guardian
• Highest Rating
  "Taiwanese director Midi Z pins docu-style heft to a resonant character drama about Burmese migrants in Bangkok."
  Kevin Harley, Total Film
• Highest Rating
  "A provocative and illuminating portrayal of people lost in the world."
  Steven Nelsh, HeyUGuys
• Highest Rating
  "Z effectively shows us the daily grind and takes us through one disappointment after another without ever ceasing to be engaging."
  Jenny Kermode, Eye for Film
• Highest Rating
  "A melancholy drama that unfolds at a slow-burning pace, Midi Z's visually engrossing film is elevated by reserved yet indelible turns by Kai Ko and Wu Ke-xi."
  Edmund Lee, South China Morning Post
• Highest Rating
  "A deceptively gentle account of the romance between two illegal immigrants in Thailand slowly builds into a moving portrait of the hardships they face and the impossible obstacles to their pursuit of happiness. Simplicity proves to be the greatest strength of a film that grows more involving as it unfolds and will consolidate Midi Z’s status as one of the rising stars of Asian cinema."
  Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
• Highest Rating
  "The Road to Mandalay is a bewitching, social-realist drama from Taiwanese film director, Midi Z."
  Jim Mackney, The London Economic