All the plot summaries I've read for The Beat That My Heart Skipped refer to Tom's piano teacher as a Chinese virtuoso. She's clearly Vietnamese, and she speaks nothing but Vietnamese to Tom. In real life, she's Vietnamese. I'm confused why she had to be from China.
That aside, the movie, a remake, is worth seeing for Romain Duris's performance as Tom, a goon who chases poor families out of apartment complexes so he can buy and resell the properties for a profit. One night he runs into his mother's former music manager. She was a gifted pianist, and the old man invites Tom, who once impressed with his own piano playing, to audition sometime.
In this opportunity to rekindle his love of music, Tom sees a potential way out of his distasteful lifestyle, a way to escape the fate of his father, who involved him in real estate scams in the first place. Tom begins taking lessons from the "Chinese" concert pianist noted above, even though she doesn't understand French and he doesn't understand Vietnamese. I've encountered similar language difficulties trying to order takeout on occasion, but food and music are international languages.
Duris's Tom is volatile and restless, a caged animal. His thin frame is a live wire, and his intensity compresses his face into a frown. He resembles a pissed-off French Adam Brody dealing with drug withdrawal. Everywhere he goes on screen, the eye follows.