Will Lucky Lu get a UK distribution after its premiere at the 69th BFI London Film Festival?
It’s not our first time to encounter this film. We saw it during the Festival du Cannes this year in May, when our magazine Private Waves was founded.
Lucky Lu (2025) is the feature debut of director Lloyd Lee Choi, expanding on his acclaimed short Same Old into a tender yet gripping portrait of urban survival and quiet resilience. The film stars Chang Chen, Fala Chen, and Carabelle Manna Wei, and centres on a Taiwanese immigrant delivery worker in New York whose e-bike is stolen on the very day his wife and daughter arrive from Taiwan. What begins as a desperate search for the stolen bike unfolds into a moving reflection on dignity, fatherhood, and the fragile balance between love and survival in a city that never stops moving.
Premiering in the Journey strand of the 69th BFI London Film Festival, Lucky Lu was praised for its understated performances, emotional authenticity, and poetic realism.
Director Lloyd Lee Choi delivers a film that bridges East and West — a heartfelt story about the invisible labour and quiet sacrifices behind every delivery, every dream, and every family trying to start anew.
We will continue to follow this film’s circulation in the international film festival circuit. It’s next appearance in the country is on 3 November at the Belfast Film Festival 2025.
In the photo (L to R): Tony Yang, Lloyd Lee Cho, Fala Chen. Credit to the BFI Press Centre.
Private Waves is an accredited media at the 69th BFI London Film Festival.
