Take Out (feature film)
| Take Out | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Produced by | Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Written by | Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Starring | Charles Jang Jeng-Hua Yu Wang-Thye Lee Justin Wan |
| Editing by | Sean Baker |
| Distributed by | CAVU Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 6, 2008 (limited release) |
| Running time | 90 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles |
| Budget | $3000 |
| Box office | $69,816 |
Take Out is a 2004 independent film depicting a day-in-the-life of an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. The widely acclaimed film, co-written and directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, has been nominated for the John Cassavetes award in the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards.
Take Out was filmed in and near upper-Manhattan, New York, in the spring of 2003. It debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 2004. In June 2008 it was given a limited release through CAVU Pictures. On September 1, 2009, Kino Entertainment released 'Take Out' in the US on a Region 1 DVD.
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[edit] Plot
Take Out is a day-in-the-life of Ming Ding (Charles Jang), an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. Ming is behind with payments on his huge debt to the smugglers who brought him to the United States. The collectors have given him until the end of the day to deliver the money that is due. After borrowing most of the money from friends and relatives, Ming realizes that the remainder must come from the day's delivery tips. In order to do so, he must make more than double his average daily income.
In a social-realist style, the camera follows Ming on his deliveries throughout the upper Manhattan neighborhood where social and economic extremes exist side by side. Intercutting between Ming's deliveries and the daily routine of the restaurant, Take Out presents a harshly real look at the daily lives of illegal Chinese immigrants in New York City.
[edit] Main characters
| Role | Actor | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ming Ding | Charles Jang | The main protagonist. A determined, reticent delivery man who is racing against time to come up with the late payment owed to Snakehead smugglers. Ming came to the United States with the goal of creating a better future for his wife and child back in China. |
| Young | Jeng-Hua Yu | A fellow delivery man and Ming's closest friend at the take-out. Young is a happy-go-lucky slacker who provides comic relief to the mundane work day. He is the only one at the take-out who is aware of Ming's dilemma. |
| Big Sister | Wang-Thye Lee | The cashier and managerial figure of the take-out. Big Sister is a spunky woman with street smarts who juggles the orders and operations of the take-out. |
| Wei | Justin Wan | A cook at the take-out who has been in the country longer than most of the others. Wei's sense of seniority frequently lands him in minor disagreements of opinion and power with the other workers. |
[edit] Production notes
Take Out is a feature film shot on digital video due to both the cinema vérité style and the non-existent budget. Employing an ensemble cast of both professional and nonprofessional actors, and shooting without a full crew in an actual take-out restaurant during operating hours, gave filmmakers Tsou and Baker a liberating experience in which acting and story became the only concern. The "run and gun" method of filmmaking created a raw energy that the filmmakers feel they have captured on film.
Taking cues from the filmmaking of Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers, Take Out puts a distinctly human face on the lives of people largely hidden from and ignored by the main stream.
[edit] Interesting facts
- The restaurant scenes were shot during the regular business hours of an actual Chinese take-out located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
- June 2003 was the rainiest June in New York City since record-keeping began in 1869.[1]. This timely weather provided the pounding rain seen in the bicycle delivery scenes.
- The actors playing customers in the delivery scenes were found through Craigslist postings and paid $5 for their time and use of their doorstep.
- Although the movie followed a general script, several scenes were improvised or created from candid footage.
- Wang-Thye Lee, who plays Big Sister, is the only non-professional actor of the main cast and had been working at the actual take-out restaurant for over 10 years.
- The lead actor, Charles Jang, is a Korean-American who learned to speak Mandarin Chinese while living overseas in Taiwan.
[edit] Notable Articles & Reviews
- New York Times
- The Village Voice
- Variety
- Film Journal International
- The New Yorker
- The Huffington Post
- The Onion
- Los Angeles Times
The film currently has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE5DF153BF930A15755C0A9659C8B63 Record Falls, And Still It Keeps Falling
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/take_out/ Take Out on Rotten Tomatoes
