Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Floating Life (1996)

play
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

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.