Now Chinatown (NR)

synopsis

Lee, a sensitive, artistic young woman has come from China to live in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Once she arrives there, she is practically turned into an indentured servant at a run-down Chinese restaurant. Lee's world is small and lonely as she works to send money home to help her ailing grandparents in China. She watches the bus go by each day and wishes that her world could expand outside the streets of Chinatown. Mistreated by everyone around her, she takes solace in an encounter with an Anglo-American patron named Steve, who stands up for her when no one else will. This stranger offers her the inspiration she needs to get out of an increasingly abusive environment... but now she must find it within herself to take the risk.