Review of Combination Platter (1993) by Zarinah H — 08 Jun 2009

This is an early 90s movie that shows its age, i.e. the production values [I watched it through Netflix] are lackluster and the picture quality was mediocre. The story itself is not unique - it centers on illegal immigrant Robert [Jeffrey Lau] who is from Hong Kong and presently employed as a waiter at the Szechuan Inn,a Chinese restaurant somewhere on the outskirts of NY City. Robert is desperately seeking a green card as he fears deportation, and his close friend tries to get American women who will enter into a fake marriage for 2 years so that Robert gets his green card. These attempts fall flat and Robert is left to ponder his fate until he is introduced via the same friend to another Caucasian American woman. This is where the plot turned strange - I was under the assumption the lady, Claire, only met Robert to determine if they could make a go of a fake marriage, but it turned out that Claire had no inkling of Robert's visa predicament.

The part of the movie that truly engaged me was the story centered on the running of the Szechuan Inn - there were a lot of interesting themes explored here - the rather strained relationship between the Mandarin speaking workers [from China] and the Cantonese speaking ones [from Hong Kong], the restaurant's owner's niece struggling with an identity crisis [she is an American-born Chinese but feels that she is neither wholly American or Chinese], the restaurant patrons, and many more. This was the part of the movie that truly entertained me. The other part - where Robert carries on a rather awkward romance with Claire came across as just that - awkward and very fake, and I felt let down by the shallow exploration of their relationship.

The actor portraying Robert tries his best to appear earnest in his portrayal of a desperate illegal alien, but comes across as mostly stiff in his scenes. The ending is open-ended, but on the whole, this is an average cultural study that is worth watching if only for the credible portrayal of the inner workings of a Chinese restaurant and its underlying politics.