Something’s in the air in Shu Lea Cheang’s Fresh Kill. I’m not talking metaphorically. There’s a literal red haze that floats in New York’s Staten Island sky, as waste piles high in the Fresh Kills landfill. The city is rife with pollution affecting people and animals. This experimental sci-fi film paints clear divisions from the jump, of the haves — who dine at a lavish, extremely dark sushi restaurant — and the have-nots, who while away the hours living in tents or crowded apartments.
Claire (Erin McMurtry) works as a waitress at the same sushi restaurant where corporate big wigs make big plans that affect her life over meals she can’t afford, including a particularly pricey dish featuring the red lips of an exotic fish. She lives a happy life with her partner Shareen (Sarita Choudhury) and their daughter Honey (Nelini Stamp). One day, Claire brings home contaminated fish from work, which makes Honey glow green. She vanishes, sending Shareen and Claire into panic, which turns into action. They work with their friends Jiannbin (Abraham Lincoln Lim), a sushi chef, and Miguel (José Zúñiga), a dishwasher, who both work at the restaurant, to hack into the massive and menacing GX Corporation to get justice and find out what happened to their daughter Honey.
