With a fictionalized story, director Vera Miao’s Rock Springs brings up real, painful history.
Following the death of her husband, cellist Emily (Kelly Marie Tran) moves to Rock Springs, Wyoming, with her mother-in-law and her daughter, Gracie, who hasn’t spoken to her since her father’s death. Emily soon learns about a massacre that took place there in the 19th century and how it connects to her daughter’s sudden disappearance.
Miao draws on the real-life Rock Springs massacre of 1885, when locals rioted and killed at least 28 immigrant Chinese miners. While much of the film offers scares, the attack shown on the screen brings the hardest-to-watch moments, as Chinese miners — including those we meet and spend time with on a day off — are hunted down. The actual incident occurred after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which ended the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for 10 years.
Emily sees her late husband, trying to convince herself it is all in her mind.
And Nai Nai (Fiona Fu) provides context for the “hungry ghost,” which can develop when someone dies and has no one to honor them. The one in the film seems an amalgamation of the lost miners, including Ah Tseng (Benedict Wong) and He Yew (Jimmy O. Yang), and it reveals itself after Gracie steals a doll with a connection to the past from a yard sale.
During a Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival, where Rock Springs premiered, Tran said during a scene where Emily stares ahead in grief after Gracie’s disappearance, she was actually hearing facts read about the brutal historical event. Throughout the film, Tran does excellent work conveying the frustration and pain her character experiences.
While clearly a horror film meant to scare, complete with its own monster, Miao does well to portray the massacre victims as individuals with families, hopes, stressors, and goals.
Those familiar with the Wyoming landscape could be forgiven for initially thinking the film was set in a different Rock Springs, given that it was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, an area with pretty different terrain. However, about three hours from Salt Lake, you can visit the actual town where the incident took place. A memorial and sculpture honor the memory of the victims.
Although the film premiered at Sundance, there have been no reports that it will be widely distributed.
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