Review of Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985) by Greg W — 09 Feb 2014

This movie is...fine? I guess? It's not bad. It's an early film by Wayne Wang, one of the few Hollywood directors to consistently take an interest in the lives of ordinary Chinese-American immigrants.

(Actually, maybe he's the only one to really do that, and even then he doesn't do it all the time - he's also made indie films like Smoke and studio films like Maid in Manhattan and Last Holiday.

) The movie seems like it's a fairly genuine depiction of Chinese-American immigrant life in San Francisco, but it's also not much more than that. The story focuses on Geraldine (Laureen Chew) a woman in her thirties who is still living with her very traditional mother (Kim Chew).

Her mother keeps asking her when she's going to get married, but also seems to like having Geraldine around the house. There's also a cheerful older bartender (Victor Wong) who might want to marry the mother.

That's sort of it. It's a movie of ordinary events and quiet observations. The cast seems like it consists entirely of nonprofessional actors - looking at the IMDB page, it seems like only one or two of them would ever make a career out of acting, and none of them had significant experience before this movie.

It all feels very authentic, and probably is. But I don't feel especially moved or as if I've learned a whole lot from the movie. I'd only really recommend it if you're especially interested in depictions of immigrant life, or in the career of Wayne Wang.

Otherwise, you can probably live without seeing it.