Dark Matter is the feature film debut of renowned opera and theatre director Chen Shi-Zheng and delves into the world of Liu Xing, a Chinese science student pursuing a PhD in the U.S in the early 1990s.Driven by ambition, yet unable to navigate academic politics, Lui Xing is inexorably pushed to the margins of American Life, until he loses his way.Liu Xing arrived in America with plans to study the origins of the universe. In the beginning, everything is looking up.He finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment and flirts with an attractive American girl who works in a local tea shop.When the head of the department Jacob Reiser welcomes him into his select cosmology group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in American science.At an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver, a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest student. An unspoken bond forms between them.
Liu Xing becomes Reiser's protege, accompanying him to a prestigious conference where he makes his impressive debut.
He is drawn to dark matter, an unseen substance that shapes the universe but it soon becomes clear that his developing theories threaten the Reiser Model.
Excited by the possibility of a breakthrough Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must first pay his dues.
soon he is eclipsed in the department by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, and is forced to go behind Reiser's back to publish his discoveries.
When the article draws ire instead of accolades Liu Xing turns to Joanna, who naively encourages him on his collision course.
Starring:Ye Liu, Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn