Ziyu Luo is a Chinese-born and New York-based writer and filmmaker. She graduated in Language and Literature in China, and enrolled in the Filmmaking Programme and the New York Film Academy in 2020. She has since directed a music video and two short movies. The latest one, American Daydream, portrays a Chinese-American doctor who has to grapple with her passion for acting and her undocumented mother. Our writer Victoria Luxford described it as “a non-judgmental take on the American Dream”. The movie premiered earlier this year in the HollyShorts Film Festival, in Hollywood.

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Victoria Luxford – How were you first inspired to make the film?

Ziyu Lou – It was about three and half years ago when I first came to the US and realised just how many people are undocumented here, and most of them don’t speak English. I did some research and found out that over 45 million people in the US are from outside the country, and about 11.7 million of them are undocumented. That’s a huge number! Back then, we were still in the middle of the pandemic, and everything felt so unstable. Crime rates were unexpectedly high, and as someone new to the U.S., I was dealing with my own set of challenges. It got me thinking — how are these people coping? So, I started going to Chinatown more often, meeting people, and listening to their stories. It was also easier for me to speak our native language with them, which helped me connect. My English was pretty terrible back then; I could barely understand what people were saying. I learned that so many families were in situations similar to this teen girl I met, and that’s where the inspiration for the film really came from.

VL – It’s a story that requires the characters to have a very particular familial dynamic. How difficult was it to find the right mix of actors, particularly the central mother-daughter pairing?

ZL – It was quite a challenge, to be honest. Finding the right actress for the mother role was especially tough. She needed to be over sixty, an excellent actor, and speak perfect Mandarin without any accent. Most importantly, she had to convey the right mix of stubbornness, warmth, hardship, and resilience. I initially tried street casting in Chinatown because I wanted someone who felt authentic. I walked around, talked to people, and reached out to my friends, but after a month, I still hadn’t found the right person. So, I turned to online casting and received tons of submissions. At the same time, I was also producing the film, which took up a lot of my time. To manage both directing and casting, I hired a casting director to help. I got lucky because there weren’t many submissions for the mother role. When I first saw her audition, I had a strong intuition that she was the one!

VL – How difficult logistically was it to film that busy family meal with so much going on?

ZL – Oh It was crazy, you know, since it was a low-budget film, we had to manage with a big truck just to carry all of our production design stuff. The home you see in the movie was actually a card game studio in Chinatown, and my production designer and set dresser did an amazing job turning it into a Chinese family home. It was a massive effort, and I’m really grateful for their hard work. As for the food, I handled most of it myself. I cooked half of it because it’s cheaper that way, and bought the other half from Chinatown. It was a lot to juggle, but we made it work!

VL – Is it challenging to choreograph so many actors in a way that still feels natural?

ZL – Absolutely, it was quite a challenge! With so many actors moving around, toasting, and talking, it felt like a lot of preparation from the get-go. As soon as I finished the script, I knew we had a lot of work ahead. We did plenty of rehearsals to block out the scene and work on timing so everyone knew exactly where to be and when. During these rehearsals, we really focused on building strong connections and trust. We spent a lot of time together, and it wasn’t just about me; all the cast members understood their characters and motivations. This approach made everyone feel more comfortable and confident, which naturally came through on screen. The close collaboration and open communication really helped us make each scene as effective as possible.

VL – The tone is comedic for the first part before moving toward dramatic confrontation in the final minutes. How did you achieve that balance as a writer and director, moving between funny and serious moments without feeling jarring?

ZL – This is a great question, thank you! I really have to thank my cast for naturally transitioning from comedic moments to serious ones. They were fantastic in bringing that balance to life. And I’ll give myself some credit too haha, for writing a script that flowed smoothly without feeling jarring—haha… I think we’re all pretty familiar with this way of handling difficulties. Many of us have faced challenges in life, and sometimes we cope through humour. So, for me, the shift from comedy to drama really came from real life, from the way we all navigate tough moments with a sense of humor before confronting the seriousness underneath.

VL – Is there anything cut from the script or final edit that was hard to let go of?

ZL – Yes, there was a scene I really hated to cut. In the original script, there was a symbolic moment where the mother and daughter confronted each other through their feet. The daughter was running toward the immigration office, and we only saw her running shoes and heard her breathing. Meanwhile, the mother was pacing nervously in the office, waiting for her daughter to translate. Their shoes were pointing in opposite directions, which created this tension. It was inspired by a scene in Kill Bill 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004) where the camera focuses on the main character’s feet during a confrontation outside the wedding ceremony (right before the showdown). I wanted to capture a similar sense of tension and the complex 相爱相杀 (love-hate) dynamic between two of them.

VL – One of the aspects of American Daydream is something that has touched upon in different, by films such as The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019) and Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, 2022). They all feature parents who have emigrated to the US and found themselves at odds with their children who want something different for their own lives. What is it about this conflict that makes such compelling cinema?

ZL – You know, I think the reason this conflict works well in films is that it’s more than just a generational gap—it’s really about culture and identity. Our parents’ generation grew up with a completely different mindset, shaped by their education and experiences, and that naturally creates tension when we, the younger generation, have our own ideas about what we want in life.

For Chinese families, especially with Confucian values, there’s a big focus on family as a whole, whereas in the West, it’s more about individualism. So when immigrant families try to balance these two worlds, there’s bound to be some conflict. But one thing that surprised me while making this film is how universal this story feels. People from all sorts of backgrounds, even with different languages and cultures, can still connect with this dynamic. That complicated love between a mother and daughter is just something everyone understands, no matter where you’re from.

VL – Has the person who you mentioned inspired the piece seen the film? If so, what did they think?

ZL – I actually haven’t shown it to them yet. I really want them to watch it in a real theatre. You know, it just feels so different seeing it on the big screen with an audience, compared to watching at home with a link. I’m super curious to see their reaction in that kind of setting. So I’ve been holding off until I hopefully get into one of the New York festivals. That would be the perfect time.

VL – Finally, do you have any projects lined up for the future?

ZL – Yes, I’m currently working on a feature script. I’m excited to tell the story of my grandmother, who was a 童养媳 (child bride) with an arranged marriage. She was married to my grandfather when she was just a teenager, and they didn’t even meet until the wedding day. Then, when she was pregnant with my uncle, my grandfather went off to the Korean War.

I want to explore how societal and political changes affect ordinary people, blending old Chinese traditions with the experiences of younger generations in the US. I’m toying with the idea of making it a drama, romance, fantasy genre. It’s not a traditional story you would see on the screen before, and It’s not just a completely Chinese story—it will also include modern American life. These are still rough ideas, and I keep coming up with more as I go along. I plan to spend a few months living in China in order to focus on the Chinese aspects of the story in a place with unique culture and landscapes I’ve always dreamed of visiting. Then I’ll come back here to work on the American parts. I’m hoping to finish the first draft in about six months.

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Ziyu Lou is pictured on both images featured in this interview.