It's difficult to come up with positive commentary for this film; I find myself wondering if I saw the same flick as the other people writing reviews. The plot and character development are so extremely basic that the entire story can be well told in perhaps 15 minutes at the VERY longest. That it runs for nearly 5 times that creates total boredom long before the finale, a growing internal question of whether anything is going to happen at the end worth waiting through all that nothingness. And in fact, nothing worth waiting for does happen, leaving the viewer with that I-sure-wasted-my-money feeling.
None of this is helped by the cover design and description if you get the film via DVD or online rental or purchase. They both give the impression that the majority of the story is about the trials and problems of raising a half-Asian child in an intolerant society. The actual story told only touches on that lightly at the end; choosing instead to stretch out what should essentially have been the 10 minute background to the real story into a full length movie.
The production values are good --no ridiculous shaky cam where it is not appropriate, no screen so dark it's impossible to see what is going on, etc-- and the fact that the characters are played by either mostly unattractive people or people made up so as to look mostly unattractive is a plus --too much of Hollywood and its imitators portrays every human on the planet as a perfect(ly unbelievable) "ten" to be taken seriously in any supposedly realistic setting. There is a certain amount of humor in the film, though it's of a kind that is more saddening than really funny, and may be offensive to some --the sort of chuckle produced by a (supposedly) more sophisticated society viewing the silliness of a backward one that practices oppression of its own and intolerance of anyone different while engaging in the same practice itself in a less visible manner.
If one decides to watch it knowing about its flaws the film can be a better experience. As a commentary on social practices (and a few other things, like the dearth of realistic husbands after a war) it isn't a bad flick. It can also be seen as a gentle poking of fun at the society the filmmaker is part of, and as that is not bad either. Just don't see it expecting what marketing promises.
None of this is helped by the cover design and description if you get the film via DVD or online rental or purchase. They both give the impression that the majority of the story is about the trials and problems of raising a half-Asian child in an intolerant society. The actual story told only touches on that lightly at the end; choosing instead to stretch out what should essentially have been the 10 minute background to the real story into a full length movie.
The production values are good --no ridiculous shaky cam where it is not appropriate, no screen so dark it's impossible to see what is going on, etc-- and the fact that the characters are played by either mostly unattractive people or people made up so as to look mostly unattractive is a plus --too much of Hollywood and its imitators portrays every human on the planet as a perfect(ly unbelievable) "ten" to be taken seriously in any supposedly realistic setting. There is a certain amount of humor in the film, though it's of a kind that is more saddening than really funny, and may be offensive to some --the sort of chuckle produced by a (supposedly) more sophisticated society viewing the silliness of a backward one that practices oppression of its own and intolerance of anyone different while engaging in the same practice itself in a less visible manner.
If one decides to watch it knowing about its flaws the film can be a better experience. As a commentary on social practices (and a few other things, like the dearth of realistic husbands after a war) it isn't a bad flick. It can also be seen as a gentle poking of fun at the society the filmmaker is part of, and as that is not bad either. Just don't see it expecting what marketing promises.