Double Happiness by Mina Shum (1994)
23 April 2007I saw this movie some time ago on VHS and was blown away, this really is another film in the vein of THE JOY LUCK CLUB, and I really haven’t seen anything like it, and it was only because Sandra Oh has finally made it big with Gray’s Anatomy that this was finally gotten the DVD release it deserved. This film is great, from what I have seen with my Chinese friends this film is pretty right on the experiences Chinese who grow up here have growing up with their parents raised in China. Not only that, but this film is very well written, with great little asides that step out of the reality of the film, and a powerful performance by Sandra Oh, even though she is Korean-Canadian and not Cantonese. This film is well worth checking out.
Sandra Oh is Jade Li, a 22 year old want to be actress in Canada living with her strict father (Stephen Chang), her resigned mom (Alannah Ong) and her perky younger daughter Pearl (Frances You). Jade has a brother as well, but her father has disowned him, so she is never seen. The father is just too strict and stuck in his ways, and can’t change, or at least won’t. Jade tries to be an actress, but has trouble finding a role for a Chinese Canadian, and though she can perfectly act scenes from other films and plays, she doesn’t look right for the role. And when she goes out with her friend she meets a geeky white guy named Mark (Callum Keith Rennie, who I realizes is the Cylon Leoben Conoy in Battlestar Galactica), who she sleeps with, but runs out on him before he wakes up.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Jade dresses one way at home, and much more modern when she goes out with her friend. She is forced to go on a constant string of dates with guys her aunt finds for her (and the guys are the same, even the gay ones who can’t admit that). Her mom even dresses her for these dates, and they are all expected to lead to marriage. Jade feels completely trapped, but loves her family.
Mark finds her and tries to pull his way back into her life, but it causes trouble, especially when stays out all night.
Jade’s father’s best friend Uncle Bing (Greg Chen) comes to town to visit, and they try to show him a good time, and how good the family is, even lying about their disowned son. And he is hiding too, because he has a family back home, but one that he cannot admit to his friend, since she was once his maid, so he has to keep his family hidden.
Eventually the family sees Jade kissing Mark, and the father is furious, and Jade can’t take it any more, and she has to move out, and her father even takes the key from her, because she is not allowed home, but Uncle Bing is proud of her, because she is on a new and better path.
And we see Jade in her small apartment, reading a painting party, having left a message for Mark, who she is obviously seeing again, and she has her own life now.
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Quite an enjoyable film, and does show the trouble that CHinese kids can have dealing with their old world families, even if this is taken to an extreme in this film. A very good film.
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