Jule Gilfillan shakes up notions of national and cultural identity in RESTLESS, a romantic comedy that explores the tension and inherent humor of relationships tweaked by conflicting Chinese and American value systems. A graduate of USC and the Beijing Film Academy, Gilfillan and producer Peter Shiao brokered the first US-China film co-production with RESTLESS. As a result, the film is purposefully apolitical, offering, instead, a snapshot of the twenty-something experience in contemporary Beijing. Open collaboration with the Chinese government also allowed for unfettered filming in more than 40 locations around Beijing--including a skateboarding scene at the 500-year-old Forbidden City.

This modern-day culture contrast is also presented through two unlikely romantic pairings. Leah Quinn (Kellner), an American expat falls for her weiqi teacher, Master Sun Zhan (Le), who dons bad suits as the host of a campy weiqi TV show. Meanwhile, skateboard-toting Chinese American Richard Kao (Wu) returns to China to deliver his grandfather's ashes to the ancestral village. In the process, he learns to embrace his heritage and, to his surprise, falls for the filial and spirited niece of a family friend, Lin Qing.

The themes in RESTLESS--pitting tradition against modernity, and east against west--are not revolutionary. Though contrivances interrupt otherwise entertaining storylines, Gilfillan's film succeeds at posing questions about the meaning of ethnic and national identity, asserting that perhaps, the Great Wall and the Bamboo Curtain were never so impenetrable after all.