Dim Sum Funeral (2008)

This was just on HBO. After watching for a few minutes, I checked to see if I was really watching HBO rather than Hallmark. Sure enough, 'Dim Sum Funeral' was written by the King of the Hallmark Movies. What could have been a look into Chinese culture turned into yet another pile of schlock. Blech.

First of all, let me begin by saying that I am appalled by critic reviews of this movie. Describing the film as 'predictable' and involving a 'typical Chinese-American family' is an insult to the cast and crew. There is nothing typical about this Chinese-American family. Seeing as how many film critics are introverted white Americans, it is easy for them to forget that these people have very different values than other Americans. To be able to critique this movie fairly, you must know a good deal about Asian culture on the whole. The 'predictable' twists that occur may be typical of your average American family--but in Asian families, it is more of a rarity.Needless to say, I was quite surprised at some of the revelations the children had about their deceased mother, especially considering the fact she was born and raised in China. These revelations give a more human feel to the rigid culture of the Chinese, and give the movie substance.Asian intolerance of infidelity, interracial marriage, and homosexuality is also explored in depth. This part of the movie personifies the characters before they even speak more than a few lines, and helps humanize the 'Dragon Lady' over the course of the movie. There is much more that I could say about this movie, but I believe I've said enough to offer a conclusion: As Americans, we don't generally put much thought into ideas like homosexuality, interracial marriage, and infidelity. Its all around us--and we become numb to it. But these ideas can become catalysts for mayhem in Asian families, where such ideas are shunned or outright forbidden. Understanding this fact will help you understand--and enjoy--the movie.

This movie tries desperately to be in so many other movies footsteps that it just winds up tripping all over itself. This movie is essentially The Joy Luck Club's, Ugly Twin Sister. Although the writing is bad, it's not completely a mess. I do like that it tries to show that Chinese Americans are progressive in American society, but it never departs from some serious jingoistic dialog that seems borrowed from a bag of fortune cookies. The Family is actually a bore, but the writer thinks that by making one a lesbian, and another marry a Black Man would make them more interesting. Also, having all the non-family members play completely humble, somewhat quirky, incredibly understanding, and knowledgeable to the family's "attitude" is just unbelievable. The Directing is somewhat amateurish but better than some Chinese Soap Serials. The actors are all so stiff in their performances - I've seen better performances with claymation. On the bright side, Russle Wong's acting has improved just enough to be the best performance in the whole movie - that's bad.

I guess whoever made this movie wanted something like Chinese version "Two Weeks" but with more twist, more dramatic, and they so did that, terribly!From the beginning, all the family members hated their mother so much, dislike each other so much, and as the days goes by, they start to learn to celebrate life? why? because the memory from the childhood? but what made them hated their mother, stopped talking to each other? isn't that the same childhood? As the story plays along, instead of revealing the reason why they become so bitter, the big twist kicks in, even though nothing above was ever explained, the twist made me understood why they hate their mother so much, but strangely, all of the sudden, instead hating her like I felt, they all start loving their mother,loving each others, then everyone start happily eating funeral Dim Sim. Is this a joke?Overall, the story line is awful, I would give it a 0 if I could, the only reason I gave it a 2 is that some of the actors are decent(not Bai Ling, she does not how to act at all in this film)Oh, another funny thing is, when the mother went to Hongkong, it said that she was 16, which is in 1960s, so she will be 63 the most by 2008, then the age of all the roles can't add up, so they got a 81 yrs old to play the mother role, wired huh? or is this a movie about future?