Growing up in the Midwest I never had much exposure to Chinese food, authentic or otherwise. Their may have been a Chinese restaurant in Cedar Rapids but I don’t remember us ever going. In contrast I do remember at least a half dozens different trips to Godfather’s Pizza which involved me gagging on cheese. While my mother would attempt the occasional Chinese dish, she simply didn’t have access to very many quality ingredients, making those meals some of my least anticipated so even once we moved to Wisconsin I rarely, if ever, attempted to seek out any Asian cousine. But once I headed up to the University of Minnesota my world would drastically change.

Take Out is a surprisingly simple film, yet powerfully compelling. It opens with two thugs barging into an overcrowded apartment, searching for Ming Ding (Charles Jang), an illegal immigrant who borrowed money from a loan shark to finance his journey to the United States. But Ming has fallen behind on his payments and the loan shark has sent a very clear message, “I need $800 tonight or your debt doubles!” And just in case that isn’t clear enough the thugs leave a calling card courtesy of a hammer to his back.

Ming quickly sets out to call in the few financial favors he has, and even after that he is still $200 short, with only a single days works as a delivery boy for a local Chinese restaurant as his only chance at scratching out enough in tips. Luckily for Ming it has started to rain, leaving him with a few extra delivery chances while his colleague has promised to bow out for the day, giving Ming a legitimate chance to break even, provided that he works his ass off.

Take Out is the type of film I typically would rarely enjoy. It has your standard plot points of the underdog fighting against all odds along with a backdrop of illegal immigration and the struggles they have surviving in a place that rarely acknowledges their existence, all providing what would typically be moral props to support a cliché film. But Take Out’s neo-realistic style has an emotional immediacy that makes the film impossible to dismiss and far from cliché.

Directors Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou are able to accomplish this because of several reasons. First, the cinematography is truly stunning. Not because it is flashy or even beautiful, but rather because of how organic and intimate it is. The scenes in the restaurant were all shot while it was still open, making every moment that occurs within its walls feel incredibly realistic. And that feeling spills out from the restaurant with each delivery Ming makes. Oh sure, you will figure it out later that each delivery had to be staged to one degree or another, but you’ll be hard pressed to view Take Out as anything but a documentary while the film is running, which is a testament to the quality of the film.

Aiding the cinematography is the fantastic acting from the entire cast. Jang, in particular, is outstanding as Ming. While a predominantly silent performance Jang is able to effectively emote the deep sense of melancholy that practically seeps out of his every pore. But this isn’t a showy performance, quite the opposite, as Ming is resigned to the struggle that saturates his life and is simply do everything he can to maintain his composure. Ming realizes this is a terrible day, but it is just one of a series of terrible days that he has already lived through, just as he will live through many more of them in the future. Ming simply has a job to do and he will put everything he has into accomplishing it.

But while Jang is the true standout performance, it is Wang-Thye Lee as Big Sister who steals every scene in which she appears. When Baker and Tsou decided to shoot at this specific restaurant they wisely decided to keep the effervescent Lee in the film, as she is the actual owner of the restaurant. Every scene of her taking orders or interacting with customers are actual events that Baker and Tsou filmed while the store was open and Lee dominates the screen whether she is cursing out annoying customers in Mandarin or giving a high five to those she enjoys. She is a consummate showman and the film crackles whenever she is onscreen with nary a drop off just because she isn’t a “real” actress, in fact, quite the opposite occurs. Lee’s naturalism helps authenticate the entire film.

When I eventually made it to the University of Minnesota I found myself living in a city that had a huge Asian population, and as a result soon found myself trying out all manner of Asian cousine. It didn’t take long for me to realize that something I had once avoided was something I now relished. And while Take Out is on cursory glance a seemingly standard melodrama, in actuality it is a rich and fascinating film, full of complexities and wonder, and a film I would not only recommend, but have every intention of revisiting again and again.

Tags: Asian, cedar rapids, Charles Jang, chinese food, chinese restaurant, cinema, cinematography, film, illegal immigrant, illegal immigration, Independent Indies, Minnesota, movie, Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou, Take Out, trailer, United States, university of minnesota, Wang-Thye Lee

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Features, Independent Indies, Movies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.