“Expats,” a new TV series starring Academy Award-winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman, will premiere soon. Its official trailer has been released, featuring a number of Hong Kong street scenes, including crowds holding umbrellas, a gathering of foreign domestic helpers, and Mido Cafe tea restaurant at Yau Ma Tei.
In 2014, tens of thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets, holding umbrellas as a tool to protest the Hong Kong police’s use of violence to disperse crowds of students demanding more transparent elections, which was triggered by Beijing’s further erosion of the former British colony’s self-governance. The movement was later named “Umbrella Revolution,” referencing the umbrellas used for defense against the police’s pepper spray, and quickly gained widespread acceptance.
Adapted from the 2016 novel The Expatriates written by Janice Y. K. Lee, the story is set in 2014. It follows three American women who have moved to Hong Kong: Margaret (Nicole Kidman), who moved to the city due to her husband (Brian Tee)’s job, is devastated by the disappearance of her son; Mercy (Yoo Ji-young), a Korean American Ivy League graduate whose childminder job connected her with the Hong Kong expat community, blames herself for the child’s disappearance; and Hilary (Sarayu Blue), Margaret’s friend and neighbor who is struggling in her marriage and trying to have a child.
The director of Expats, Chinese-American Lulu Wang, was somewhat compelled by Ms. Kidman to take the job.
“Am I an expat? Am I an immigrant? Which community do I really relate to more, and how would I tell the story of the intersection of all of these different communities?” she asked.
“I think that my hesitation just came from a sense of responsibility, really—I didn’t know if I could be all things to all people.”
Having six episodes in total (including the 90-minute fifth episode), Expats will premiere on Prime Video on Jan. 26, 2024, and will run weekly until Feb. 23, 2024.
