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Floating Life (1996)

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clip 'So many ways to die in Australia'

Original classification rating: MA. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

The Chan family arrives in their new home in Australia – a new house on a new street in a new suburb. Mr Chan (Edwin Pang) marvels at the size of the kitchen. The younger boys Chau and Yue (Toby Chan and Toby Wong) immediately set off to explore the house. Bing (Annie Yip) warns everyone of the dangers of life in Australia – from skin cancer to redback spiders to pitbull terriers. Mrs Chan (Cecilia Lee) unwraps the family altar, which has travelled on the plane with her.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

The exteriors, and even the interior of the house, are blasted with light in these opening scenes, to give a sense of how foreign Australia looks to the Chan family. There’s both excitement and fear in their new surroundings, which daughter Bing does her best to encourage with tales and statistics about how many people are killed by spiders and dogs. The scene has a strong feel of comedy, which becomes much darker later in the film.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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