Movie Review: Take Out

As I posted last week, a new indie film by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou called 'Take Out' was released in NYC on June 6th. And since I know the main actor (Charles Jang) through 2 degrees of separation, I had to come support my fellow Asian friends and filmmakers. I didn't know what to expect - the 8:30pm show was sold out! We purchased our tickets but decided to grab a snack beforehand. So we ended up arriving at the theatre at 8:20pm. There were crowds of people ahead of us, but luckily some of my friends were standing in line already. They were able to reserve enough seats for all 10 of us! The theatre inside Quad Cinema was quite small - I didn't expect it to be so tiny. It barely fit about 150 people. The seats were in high demand so it was almost difficult to reserve a seat for our friend who arrived late.

Back to the movie. It was all filmed on one camera. The dialogue was all in Mandarin (mixed with a few Cantonese words). The main character Ming, (played by Charles) was top-notch. He was able to portray a sullen, confused, frustrated illegal Chinese immigrant. Nevermind that he is actually Korean and is a very outspoken guy! There were very humorous moments in the film. The filmmaker Sean noted at the end of the film that all the actors were professionals and that they put an ad on Craigslist for people in the film who 'ordered Chinese food.'

One of the funniest moments for me was when Ming's friend was teaching him how to get more tips from the customers. The technique to smile and say "thank you very much" was classic because it reminded me of how true it is! The film is an earnest attempt to reveal the true trials of a daily struggles of Chinese delivery men. I would recommend it to anyone who has ever eaten Chinese takeout - so that means everyone!!

http://takeoutthemovie.com/trailer.html