The protagonist in this film is based on a real-life character. She is COCO, a first-generation Chinese migrant worker, running a dry-cleaning shop in London alone far from her home country and family. I met her because she is one of the contributors to the last documentary I made, and we live on the same street in London. She is a very warm and genuine person from the first time I knew her, however, she became a quite different person during the interview—Even though I tried my best to explain my intention to relax her, she still deliberately made up some obvious lies in front of the camera. Especially when we talked about her family and her life in London, she kept repeating the phrase “It is all good. I have a perfect family. And we love each other so much” Her self-concealment, however, inspired me and made me curious about her personal life more. I cannot help wondering what kind of relationship she has with her daughter and her husband. What does family mean to her? Does she have any friends here? Is she very warm to all her customers, or just to me, and does that relate to her daughter (because her daughter and I are the same age)? These questions kept coming back to me after the interview. As I could not find answers directly from Coco herself, I got down to drafting a story about her.

London Film School