Review of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007) by Walter M — 28 Sep 2008
[font=Century Gothic]Sensitively directed by Wayne Wang, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is a deeply moving film about Shi(Henry O), a retired rocket scientist and widower, going to vist his daughter Yilan(Faye Yu) in America. Yilan at first eats dinner with her father but soon gets annoyed and starts avoiding him which is strange behavior considering this may be the last time they ever see each other.[/font].
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[font=Century Gothic]Her benign neglect reminded me of "Tokyo Story" in its lamenting of how badly treated the elderly are in society but in this case, it runs both ways, a reminder of how it is the generation gap that makes communication even more difficult than any language barrier. For example, despite his limited command of English, Shi manages well on his own and makes the acquaintance of others including a pair of Mormon missionaries. They quote from the Book of Mormon to which he replies with a quote from Marx.(I'll have to remember that for future reference...) This just goes to show that Shi is from a generation when Communism was still the orthodoxy in China. But now, he lives in a country that has changed massively and traveled to a strange country that he seeks to comprehend.[/font].
This review of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007) was written by Walter M on 28 Sep 2008.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers has generally received positive reviews.
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