Older cultures coming to a new land. Chinese americans coming to america. At first, due to the immigration laws, it could only be the male workers. Then, when wives were allowed to come to the U. S., they brought their customs and points of view. Pride, respect, outlook on family. When Ben Loy (Russell Wong) gets married, but hasn't come up with offspring, his wife Mai Oi ( Cora Miao) thinks she has a solution... at least to some of her problems. Will this help, or will it only cause more problems? This is all about family pride, revenge, resolving issues within the community, and not involving outsiders. It's quite good. Directed by Wayne Wang, who also happens to be married to Maio, the female lead. Wang would also do the Joy Luck Club a couple years after this.
Eat a Bowl of Tea
1989
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Eat a Bowl of Tea
1989
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
Second generation Chinese-American Ben Loy Wang grew up solely with his father Wah Gay Wang since the American exclusion laws prevented Ben's mother from emigrating to the U.S. from China. It's 1949, and Wah Gay has settled into a life in New York City without his wife, who he has not seen in twenty years. The Wang's story is similar to other Chinese-American families. As such, New York City's Chinatown is populated with old men and their now grown sons, who have few opportunities to marry into their own race. But times are now a little different. Ben, an ex-American G.I., has just returned to New York City from his mother's home town in China with his Chinese bride, Mei Oi. The meeting of Ben and Mei Oi was arranged by Ben and Mei Oi's respective parents. Mei Oi's family is much the same as Ben's, with Mei Oi's father, who she has never met, living in New York City, while Mei Oi lived in China with her mother. By happenstance, Ben and Mei Oi seem to hit it off, and even fall in love by the time of the wedding. Although the expectations for Ben and Mei Oi are the same - live a prosperous life with many children - achieving that expectation weighs heavily on the two who have their own issues. Mei Oi, for who Ben is supposed to be her primary focus, is trying to adjust to American life without the support of family or friends. And the pressures of meeting his obligations of providing for the family and the overwhelming expectation of his father and his father's friends to produce an offspring sooner than later is causing Ben not to be able to perform sexually while in that environment. Despite their love for each other, the question becomes whether Ben and Mei Oi's marriage can survive these problems.
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from the makers of joy luck club
Not a comedy, but an enjoyable drama
We selected this film on the merits of the many famous HK actors involved, so I didn't notice its labeling as a 'comedy' until we got it home. True, it has comedic moments, but so does the Bourne Identity.
The review here also lists the film as Mandarin with English subtitles; it is in Cantonese, with some characters speaking a regional dialect.
The story centers around that period in US history just after WWII where, for the first time, Chinese immigrants were allowed to apply for full citizenship and allowed to bring wives from China; the story follows a young ex-serviceman whose father sends him home to bring back one of the first of these wives. In a few days he's thrust from the club-hopping carefree vet to take his full traditional role as First-Son with all it's trappings and responsibilities, all this on top of he and his wife being one of the first of their kind, a true Chinese-American family.
Put yourself there, you'll agree, this is a lot to heap on a pair of 20-somethings, it wears them down, things fall apart.
It is, in a sense, the same old story, as they say, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl, love always wins, love never loses, put your money on love sort of story, well shot, well put together. It's about an important time in our history while also an important time in all our lives, nothing to shower with awards, but a good story well told and well worth the rental.
A Good Film From Director Wang
Ignore the picture that was used as the poster of this film, it is completely incongruous to the story. This is a film set in New York's Chinatown about a couple, one an Americanized Chinese young man (Ben Loy) who agrees to marry a young lady (Mei Oi) from a small village in China. She comes to New York and the story is the struggle of their compatibility. The movie is set in the late 1940's/early 1950's and it has a good rhythm to it. Most of it is in English, but that doesn't matter. At times you feel like a voyeur, looking in on this couple and wondering what will happen next to them. They do have their problems, and she even takes on a lover (Eric Tsang, who has a smallish but pivotal part),but the story is about the clash between Chinese traditions and their present day. While the film is good, it partly suffers from melodramatic overload. If you're interested in seeing a film about the immigrant experience, this is a good one about the Chinese one. I saw it on TCM in the wee hours of the morning. I watched it through, so that in and of itself is an endorsement.