“Hollywood movies don’t give even half a second to breathe,” said Wayne Wang, the famous 59-year-old Asian-American director, about mainstream action and effects laden movies.

“Empty spaces give you time to think about life.”

Such spaces are exactly what he gives to the audience in his second independent film, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985).

Wang, who also directed films such as The Joy Luck Club (1993) and Maid in Manhattan (2002), is in town for Wayne Wang Retrospective at Cinema Europa, which is featuring his past works and interactive dialogue sessions with the director for his audience. This retrospective will set the scene for the local screening of his 2 new independent films, The Princess of Nebraska and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers on Oct 16.

Wang revealed at the end of the screening of Dim Sum that, while Princess of Nebraska is a fast-paced movie, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is a variation of Dim Sum, but “not as slow”.

Dim Sum follows the relationship between Chinese-born Mrs Tan (Kim Chew) and her American-born daughter, Geraldine (Laureen Chew), in San Francisco. Both mother and daughter can’t seem to let go of each other. Geraldine, the only single child, is hesitant to do so because she doesn’t want her mother to be alone in her declining years. As for Mrs Tan, who keeps saying she wants to see Geraldine married to her boyfriend, she’s visibly worried about being alone. And the fear is not unfounded either, as Mrs Tan becomes ill after a few days of not having Geraldine share the same roof.

Real scenario, convincing cast
Both mother and daughter, who share the same relationship and issue in real life, acted out the film beautifully. Kim and Laureen took their time building up each scene with emotion, but ended them with no climax except space to contemplate about life. The gentleness of their relationship reveals gradually and soon, it is obvious that it’s not a matter of whether Geraldine gets married or not. It becomes a serious soul-searching session.

Slow-moving film
Moving along the same idea of giving intervals for the audience to breathe and think, Wang added a few long environment shots. These include shots of waves crashing on the shores and the empty room in which Mrs Tan does her tailoring work.

Admiring Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s slow-moving films, which also have many environment shots, Wang said, “The environment is really where all our emotions contain. It’s a containment of what we feel.”

The room for thoughts was spaced out neatly along the film as if Wang knows when his audience needs the time to reflect the story that had been told so far, as well as their own lives in relation to this. These scenes advanced in synch with calm-inducing traditional Chinese music by Todd Boekelheide.

Reflection of the erosion of traditional values
Though Dim Sum’s focus is on the edgy mother-daughter relationship, it also delves into the older generation’s concern over the erosion of Chinese traditional values among the younger generation of Chinese-Americans.

Well worn Chinese practices, such as throwing a wedding banquet, celebrating Chinese New Year  and believing in fortune-tellers, are embraced by the older generation characters. Although the younger ones do accept these customs, the film hints that these observances will vanish together with the older folks.

Wang believes that food is the only cultural thing that might be passed on in the younger generation’s era. Despite that, Dim Sum uses food to explain about the fragility of Chinese traditional values in future. Geraldine’s uncle, Uncle Tan (Victor Wong), reiterates sadly in a scene that Chinese traditional food will soon no longer exist because the younger generation is not receptive of learning.

Dim Sum holds many meanings for Wang. He says that this film gave him the opportunity to meet his wife, Hong Kong actress Cora Miao, who acted the character of Geraldine’s friend, Julia. Wang adds that Dim Sum’s like a tribute to the late Victor Wong, a film and stage actor he looks up to. Dim Sum also carries many meanings for the younger generation as they get to reflect about their life beliefs through Wang’s style of giving space for his audience to contemplate during the movie.

 

UrbanWire gives Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

 

Movie details
Release date: Oct 9 (GV)
Language: English
Rating: NC 16
Genre: Drama
Starring: Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, Victor Wong
Directed by: Wayne Wang

Pictures courtesy of GV Cinemas