A Korean-American family is gathering on New Year's Eve Day for a traditional NYE dinner. The mother has stomach cancer. While the father claims he can take care of her, the son has abandoned his NYC job to do so. He is also preparing dinner based on mother's recipes and directions he had learned from her. The daughter eventually also arrives for the event.
As the son prepares dinner, flashbacks / memories of earlier family events fill out some motivations for the current members. These can sometimes be hard to distinguish from "present day", as the son's appearance remains unchanged. From the Q+A (I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival), the director gave 2 possible reasons: the film's low budget, or since these were the son's memories, he doesn't have to change.
All 4 members of the family have different reactions to the mother's illness, which makes it more honest than the forced happiness of The Farewell. My only quibble is a final memory should have been placed somewhere else in the film, as it weakens the ending
As the son prepares dinner, flashbacks / memories of earlier family events fill out some motivations for the current members. These can sometimes be hard to distinguish from "present day", as the son's appearance remains unchanged. From the Q+A (I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival), the director gave 2 possible reasons: the film's low budget, or since these were the son's memories, he doesn't have to change.
All 4 members of the family have different reactions to the mother's illness, which makes it more honest than the forced happiness of The Farewell. My only quibble is a final memory should have been placed somewhere else in the film, as it weakens the ending