Sean Baker & Shih-Ching Tsou's Take Out is a low-budget, immersive experience that follows Ming Ding, a Chinese illegal immigrant, who struggles to make enough to survive in New York City, working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out restaurant in New York City. Shot in a documentary style using Digital Video and handheld photography, Take Out could be somewhat described as a slice-of-life type film, though this particular day in the life of Ming Dings gets off to an even more stressful beginning than normal. The film begins with a scene that finds Ming Ding rudely awakened by a pair of debt collectors, who assault him with a hammer, demanding that he pay off his $800 debt by night's end, or else. The only reason Ming Ling is in so much debt in the first place is his obligation to his wife and daughter back in China, which has left Ming Ling scraping by to survive in the hostile confines of New York. Taking place over the course of one day, Take Out captures the tough lifestyle of Chinese immigrants in New York City, capturing the detachment they feel from a country they know very little about. Much of the film follows Ming Ding as he makes countless deliveries all over Manhattan, spending much of his days standing in doorways and hallways, with some of his encounters being more demeaning than others. What is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Take Out is how it captures the camaraderie and almost mentor-esque nature that unfolds between Ming Ding and the other Chinese men and women he works with, as they attempt to educate him on how to get better tips, make more money, and survive in the hustle and bustle culture of New York City, a place which is very foreign to him. Intentional or not, Sean Baker's film seems to make a rather sad commentary on the state of how immigrants are treated in America, with Ming Ding's sole source of support and eventually financial support coming from his friends and coworkers, who have suffered through the same hardships. Even towards the end of the film, where Ming Ding is robbed and effectively left for dead due to his inability to pay his debts, he is bailed out by one of his fellow coworkers, a fellow Chinese immigrant who explains how they've all been there before and how it can only get better. Powerful and understated, Sean Baker & Shih-Ching Tsou's Take Out is an impressive debut feature that is full of life.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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