This movie by accident got the "two week" treatment; I left off writing a comment for two weeks after seeing it. Today I can still remember a few scenes of what was a well-executed but slight romantic comedy centred round a young Chinese-American doctor who meets and falls in love with a ballerina. They both happen to be female, and it seems that lesbianism is not publicly acceptable in Chinese-American society. The doctor has a bit of a problem-case mother, who at 48 and without a regular man in her life, has managed to fall pregnant, and has been booted out of the family home by her parents. Needless to say various well-meaning friends and relatives are trying to get Mum married off to a succession of more and more inappropriate men. Meanwhile the doctor blunders around in true romantic comedy style trying to continue her liaison with the ballerina while hiding it from Mum, who has moved in to the doctor's tiny Manhattan apartment.
Joan Chen is a very talented actress and plays Mum to perfection beautiful, willful, illogical and yet calculating. She is a pleasure to watch. The rest of the cast do not really stand out though Michelle Krusiec was fine as the young doctor. I had a terrible feeling that some of the unsuitable suitors (all Chinese-Americans) were playing themselves, but they were very funny. The whole Chinese-American community of Flushing seems to be extras and, en mass, very much resemble a Jewish-American crowd, or a Greek-American one for that matter. I suppose it's nice to celebrate ethnic and sexual diversity but it does tend to cast everybody in the same rather pleasant but banal light.
The first-time director Alice Wu, who trained as a doctor, also has the writing credits and it is fair to assume the story is partly autobiographical. The film is well executed, funny and well paced but despite the lesbianism and ethnic Chinese milieu not particularly original. It's almost a film school (commercial division) graduation piece done on a decent budget. Also it's filmed in New York which must be the most over-used setting for movies on the planet. Won't New Yorkers watch films made anywhere else? Anyway, the Chinese member of your correspondent's family (who happens to be a film studies student) hugely enjoyed it (especially the friends and relative whose portrayal was said to be very true to life) and I didn't look at my watch during the show, so I guess we put this one down as good entertainment.
Joan Chen is a very talented actress and plays Mum to perfection beautiful, willful, illogical and yet calculating. She is a pleasure to watch. The rest of the cast do not really stand out though Michelle Krusiec was fine as the young doctor. I had a terrible feeling that some of the unsuitable suitors (all Chinese-Americans) were playing themselves, but they were very funny. The whole Chinese-American community of Flushing seems to be extras and, en mass, very much resemble a Jewish-American crowd, or a Greek-American one for that matter. I suppose it's nice to celebrate ethnic and sexual diversity but it does tend to cast everybody in the same rather pleasant but banal light.
The first-time director Alice Wu, who trained as a doctor, also has the writing credits and it is fair to assume the story is partly autobiographical. The film is well executed, funny and well paced but despite the lesbianism and ethnic Chinese milieu not particularly original. It's almost a film school (commercial division) graduation piece done on a decent budget. Also it's filmed in New York which must be the most over-used setting for movies on the planet. Won't New Yorkers watch films made anywhere else? Anyway, the Chinese member of your correspondent's family (who happens to be a film studies student) hugely enjoyed it (especially the friends and relative whose portrayal was said to be very true to life) and I didn't look at my watch during the show, so I guess we put this one down as good entertainment.