94 minutes – Drama
Festival release date: Sept 8, 2017 (TIFF)
Release date: March 9, 2018
Production Company: Thoughts From The Asylum
Canadian distributor: Mongrel Media

Writer-director Mina Shum returns to her favourite location of East Vancouver to tell the story of 60-year-old Maria Wang (Cheng Pei Pei). The devoted wife and mother is hanging the laundry. We quickly meet her neighbours, and see her exercising in the park with her charming soulful husband, Bing (Tzi Ma). It’s Bing’s 65th birthday, and their grown daughter Ava (Sandra Oh), her husband Jonathan (Don McKellar) and their biracial kids, baby Milly and Max, come home to honour him. A little tipsy, Bing makes a heartfelt ode to his gal Maria, and is restrained and sweet. However, the next day while Maria is tidying she discovers an orange g-string thong in Bing’s suit pocket. This leads her to examine her life in Canada, her position in her marriage, the fact that she has been entirely dependent on her husband, has no fiscal independence and no work experience. Maria comes to the conclusion things must change, and so sets out on her road to independence.

Meditation Park had its World Premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.