List Price: $14.98You Pay Only: $13.49 You Save: $1.49 (10%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781417200436
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 141720043X
Label: KOCH LORBER FILMS
Manufacturer: KOCH LORBER FILMS
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: KOCH LORBER FILMS
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 11, 2005
Running Time: 84 minutes
Sales Rank: 119845
Studio: KOCH LORBER FILMS
Theatrical Release Date: 1993
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Editorial Review:
Description:
The story of a Chinese restaurant in the New York City area and its employees. One of these workers is Robert, an illegal immigrant, who is desperately seeking a green card. His best route to attain this goal, he admits, is to marry an American woman. Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Disappointing
I had higher expectations for this movie as a Sundance winner and consequently it was disappointing.
Pieces of the movie were quite good. I enjoyed the scenes in the restaurant with the interaction among the Chinese kitchen and wait staff and between the staff and the mostly Anglo customers. And I appreciated Robert's dilemma on how to get a green card because I know someone in a similar situation.
Other parts of the movie didn't work for me. I couldn't understand why the owner didn't either teach his American-born niece how to write the Chinese characters for special orders, such as "mild," or post a chart in the kitchen showing the tranlation of the English words she used. And the relationship between Robert & Claire was unclear to me for much of the movie. I thought Andy introduced them specifically because she was interested in a green card marriage and their awkward dates were to determine if they could get along enough to stay married for 2 years. When that turned out not to be the case, I wondered why she had been dating him.
The English subtitles could have been improved by indicating whether the characters were speaking in Mandarin or Cantonese. In a couple of scenes it appeared there was miscommunication between characters and I wondered if it was because one was speaking Mandarin and the other Cantonese. But I felt I missed some of the nuance in the movie because I don't speak either and the subtitles only gave the English translation. ... Read More
Rating: - Not the Hot and Spicey Dish I Ordered
Although the subject of the film is very timely and contemporary because it deals with illegal immigration, as a whole the film is rather bland. It deals with Robert a Chinese illegal alien trying to get his green card. Robert is a waiter at Szechuan Inn, a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, New York. He saves his pay and tips to send money home to his parents in China. He writes to them regularly and tells them what they want to hear: that he is dating a nice Chinese girl (which happens to be untrue). The restaurant occasionally gets unannounced visits from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services who inspect the premises to round up illegal aliens - so far Robert has managed to elude them. Eventually, Robert hopes to receive his green card so he can remain legally in the U.S. A good friend advises him of his only two options: either his employer needs to sponsor him or he must get married, even if it is a "marriage of convenience" [he pays someone to stay married to him for two years] so he can remain legally.
His friend introduces him to an American Chinese girl who is very outspoken and self-absorbed. She knows no Chinese. They negotiate for her to marry him for the sum of $25,000. Unfortunately, she senses his desperation and refuses, unless he will pay her $50,000. The sum is too large, he can not afford it. The friend provides him another option, date an American woman and try to marry her. Robert finds this choice uncomfortable but he has little choice so he goes along with ... Read More
Rating:  - poignant
I am amazed at the many reviewers who dont like it... then it strikes me,
that is precisely what the movie is about!
A Chinese illegal immigrant (Robert) who is seriously worried about survival and staying on in America - like all immigrants including legal ones like myself.
An American woman (Claire) for whom life is about self-fulfillment including a casual romance.
When these two worlds meet, grapple and try to come to terms, it comes apart.
The chinese man works as a waiter in a restaurant and there are true vignettes of chinese restaurant life.
Unwittingly perhaps, the director let on that many Chinese are not very truthful or in their culture it is not valued highly. When Robert (our hero) decides to come clean and honestly tell Claire what he wants, she doesnt recognize it because of the white lies he has told before.
Unfortunately the reviewers below are unable to appreciate the subtleness and some sadness - much like real life. They are like Claire in the movie.
Great movie - could replace Chinese with Indian, Hispanic etc and would in many places still be accurate.
Rating:  - A comedy???
Come on now, let's face it: This movie is awful! Another reviewer, trying to be kind, I think, suggests it might be enlightening for those who don't have the experience of living in an ethnic neighborhood. But really, there's nothing insightful about the situations in which these characters find themselves; they're boring, and offer no new aspects of a foreigner trying to make it in a foreign land. It's all cliches, and loaded with scenes with absolutely nothing happening! Okay, how about the positive aspects? Well, some of the characters are pretty likeable in my opinion--the main character and the hostess in the restaurant, in particular. That's the only positive thought I can muster for this one! And by the way, someone called this a comedy? I must have fast-forwarded through that part.
Rating: - A Movie With No Ending = 1 Star
This movie was a Sundance winner? I heard this was a great movie so I was very excited about my lucky purchase. But I'm not sure what bothered me more: the poorly lit sets or the wooden acting by some of the lead actors. Probably the most bothersome thing about this film was the lack of an ending to the story.
Did the writer forget to add on the final scene so the audience would have some sense of where the lead character's life would take him? Or did the director just decide to call it a night knowing the audience would be denied have a satisfying (good, bad or ugly)ending to almost 2 hours worth of watching and caring about the lead charcter.
A celluloid slice of life into the dilemmas of the expatriated maybe, but we still need some kind of conclusion.
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