Throughout much of Asia, due to our history, the word “expat” most often conjures up the image of someone who is white and hails from Europe, America, Australia, or other countries considered western. However, in Expats, we see this international community depicted with diversity. Sure, Kidman is white, but both her husband Clarke and her friend Hilary are Asian Americans. Tee, who plays Clarke, is Japanese American, and Blue, who plays Hilary, is American with Indian heritage. Which, by the way, also challenges the idea of what being American is. 

While mixed race relationships are not infrequently depicted in cinema, they are rarely handled with sensitivity or allowed the depth they deserve. And unfortunately on-screen interracial relationships often convey and perpetuate unrealistic—and sometimes harmful—stereotypes.

With the different couples included in the trailer, it’s exciting to see Wang defy the type of mixed race pairing audiences are more used to seeing: a white man dating an Asian woman. Instead, one of the central couples in Expats is Margaret (Kidman) and Clarke (Tee)—a white woman with an Asian partner. (Side note: Kidman is also older than Tee, which inverts another stereotype.) It will be interesting to see how the tragedy they live through might add depth and complexity to their relationship.

Wang has an eye for capturing landscapes in a way that communicates the emotions and inner psyche of a character, which can also incite a sense of wistfulness and nostalgia—and it looks like Expats will again show off this talent of hers. Even in just the trailer, it’s exciting to experience Hong Kong from her point of view, and see locations—some of which many of us would have walked through a thousand times—through her interpretation. From the lighting to the colour grading, Expats helps those of us who live here look at our home through fresh eyes.

In the past, Hollywood films and series that are set in Hong Kong often show a version of the city that no one who lives here would recognise—from something as small as simply getting the patterns and rhythms of everyday life wrong, like in Marvel’s Doctor Strange (2016), to not even trying to look like this city. For example, in This Means War (2012) starring Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, the opening scene features the line “what brings you to Hong Kong?” And then not two minutes later, we see during a rooftop fight scene a skyline that is ... distinctly not Hong Kong; followed by close-up shots of vehicles with mainland Chinese licence plates. (Go on, check it out.) 

So it’s refreshing to see Expats portray a wide spectrum of scenes one might actually see in Hong Kong. From super-luxurious private homes and run-down walk-up apartments with grimy walls to bustling open-air street markets with neon signs hanging above overlapping stall umbrellas like guardian angels, it seems this series is keen to show both Hong Kong as it really is—both the good and bad.

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