Take Out (2004)

Synopsis:

Authentic, suspenseful, funny, and alive with surprising detail, Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker's 'Take Out', revealing an unseen world of illegal Chinese immigrants at work in New York City. A day in the life of Ming Ding (Charles Jang) begins as a pair of hammer-wielding loan sharks come to the door of Ming's squalid apartment. Their ultimatum, delivered in Mandarin, is as simple as it is virtually impossible to fulfill: (You give us $800 tonight, or your debt is doubled.) With the family he supports half a world away, Ming has a single rain-soaked shift at his job - anonymously and almost wordlessly delivering Chinese food on Manhattan's Upper West Side - in which to pay off his thuggish creditors. Deftly combining a (terrific cast - The New Yorker) of professionals and non-actors with uncompromisingly ingenious DV photography that is (beautiful in unexpected ways under rough-and-ready conditions - Variety), Take Out intelligently illuminates an immigrant underdog and his small community of harried co-workers with the same in-the-moment, pragmatic honesty with which Ming endures the constant deprivations of life on the American margin. This, raved the Village Voice, (is as exceptional as micro-budget cinema gets.)

Actors:

Charles Jang, Jeng-Hua Yu, Wang-Thye Lee, Justin Wan, Jeff Huang, Shih-Yun Tsou, Joe Chien, Waley Liu, Ed Jansen, David Liu, Eva Huang, Ethel Brooks, Victor Sally, Tanya Perez, Maria Greenspan, Sandra McCullogh, Sharinee McCullogh, Renae McCullough, Javier Cortes, J.P. Partland

Writers:

Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou

Year:

2004

Genres:

Social Issue Dramas

DVD details

BBFC:

Classification is to be confirmed by the British Board of Film Classification

Release Date:

Not released