Take Out

Perhaps if the Producers had paid strict adherence to their very own Rules and Parameters, more likely than not, this foreign film, TAKE OUT, would never have been produced and distributed!

First, let us focus on the The Title's content and context:

There must be at least a handful of You asking Yourselves.... And Exactly why was the Title TAKE OUT selected for this film? Well, let me offer my help. The answer to that question is relatively simple and straightforward!

The movie clearly presents ONE workday in the life of its central protagonist.... A Chinese TAKE OUT Delivery Boy!

You will find his day most enjoyable... Here, I am trying my very best to exlain exactly why!

Well...for STARTERS!..... this ONE really has Cinema Verite written ALL over it! You never know exactly what to expect next. But, for the most part, ironically, nothing DOES ever REALLY happen...and that, in the case of TAKE OUT, is a GOOD thing, believe me!

Perhaps a bit cryptic and difficult to decipher at times, but I think that is because, culturally speaking, many Chinese Nationals seem to be a bit difficult to read!

Surprisingly, in the Special Features "Making-of" short, we learn that most of the cast are simply PORTRAYING characters from the Mainland. Of course, SOME of them really are, but most are Korean-American, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Chinese-American and Singaporean, ALL of whom speak PERFCT Mandarin. Wow! Sure fooled me!

A more accurate title might have been: "Chinese TAKE OUT Delivery Boy: A Day In The LIFE...or E-C Comah, E-C Goah!" If this zero budget film hadn't been executed with such overwhelmingly brutal and convincing precision, it most certainly would have been rated as much as 1 full*** less! From early on, my empathy with those on-screen characters was total and unwavering! They had me at "Sut-Tzun Tee-En-Hwah!"

At one point I actually said out loud to myself.... "Hey, they just followed this delivery boy around all day with a camera, that's why ALL this seems so REAL, because it IS REAL!" I consider myself a peace-loving person, but my identification with the characters in the film became so strong, that during one scene of horrible injustice, I yearned for a gun to shoot the bad guys myself!

TAKE OUT does shine a spotlight on some important realities. It shows us how new arrivals are forced into a life of virtual slavery by bottom-feeders who trap them into a never-ending cycle of loans with astronomical interest-rates! Hey, you think YOU have problems!? Closing note: Considering the microscopic 3K budget, the production values aren't all that bad.

Talk about getting a LOT of BANG for your BUCK!!!

Your best bet...Let TAKE OUT serve you up a slice of Chinese-immigrant life! You will feel quite satisfied!

8*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

The movie is shot so realistically I thought I was watching a documentary. The movie follows a day in the life of a Chinese food delivery boy, and all the difficulties that this line of work entails. The twist here is that this delivery boy is an illegal immigrant and has a significant debt to repay. I was surprised to see how difficult this line of work really is, and never really thought about the stories of the people who are doing this work. I wonder how many others delivery boys are in the same situation as the character in this film. There are times of heartfelt camaraderie between the workers of the Chinese restaurant, each willing to help the other out in times of greatest need. I certainly will be more generous with my tipping after having seen this film.

A day in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant (Charles Jang) delivering food on his bike in Manhattan, which is as deeply realistic as it is compassionate. It starts with him being startled out of bed in the apartment he shares with many others by a couple of heavies who come collecting for a loan shark, and he then tries for the rest of the day to scrabble up the $800 he owes them. He has a wife and baby son back in China that he's hoping to bring over someday (and he's never even met his son), but as a part of getting smuggled into the country, owes people money at a high rate of interest, something that will take several years to pay off.

Most of the film is either in the kitchen of the small Chinese restaurant he works at or in the deliveries the man makes on a dreadfully rainy day, all of which felt incredibly authentic. The backstory to this film is amazing, shot as it was for less than $3,000, and in how it used real people in the customer interactions, some of which were loosely scripted on the fly, others of which seemed simply captured. As Sean Baker explained it, the take-out customers were cast by posting an ad on Craig's list offering $5 to those willing to be filmed at their own apartment receiving food, the resulting footage "hybrid filmmaking, blurring that line between what is real and what is fiction." I was blown away by how immersive it was.

Because a lot of the action is in deliveries, the tension in the film is quiet, but it's definitely there, and I was fully invested. Any setback for this guy can have severe consequences, like a flat tire, an ugly customer interaction, his bike getting stolen, or a car in all that traffic hitting him - and then of course there's the matter of needing to have $800 by the end of the day lest he get beaten some more. How will he make it through a day, much less years of working this way?

In this character there is the timeless struggle of an immigrant hoping for a better life, but Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou were wisely restrained in not making any big political statements or creating cliché interactions. A lot of what gets said is through the immigrant's mannerisms, and in us seeing the world through his eyes, with people from all walks of life and with varying levels of empathy taking food from him. I loved that about the film, and how it showed the power in the community, with people looking out for one another because they had been there, and knew what it was like. I saw great characters and performances in his co-workers, including his fellow delivery man and friend (Jeng-Hua Yu), "big sister," the cashier and manager (Wang-Thye Lee, who was essentially in her real job), and the prickly cook (Justin Wan). It's just a great little film, a hidden gem, and one to check out.

From the extras, it seems that the makers were absolutely fascinated by the idea of recreating routine food deliveries in New York.

Plus some details of cooking.

They even cut our an opening showing more about the gangsters, available as a Deleted Scene for the disk.

I really could not share their enthusiasm. A lot too much of it. And we could have been shown all sorts of other things that were just as worthy.

That said, I liked it, despite liberal use of the fast-forward switch. The characters were very believable. One sympathized. And it mocked some common ideas - several explained how they faked a political motive when they just wanted to make more money than the could back home.

Directors Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou outdo themselves with their tale which is about much more than the sum of its parts. Excellent performances from professionals and non-professionals highlight this story of one young immigrant's struggle to survive in a country that doesn't care what state he is in, they just want their deliveries on time. Please seek this out and see what can be done with no money and a lot of talent. This story could be done 'Hollywood' style, with its crucial deadlines and world pressing in on Ming Ding(the lead), but it doesn't need to rely on overmanipulative scores, frenetic editing or artificial suspense..the way it's laid out will keep you on edge as it is.