21) TAKE OUT

Director: Sean Baker & Shih-Ching Tsou
Stars: Charles Jang, Jeng-Hua Yu, Wang-Thye Lee, Justin Wan, Jeff Huang
Year: 2004
Rating: NR

I can honestly say I've never seen a film quite like Take Out. From a budget less than most families spend on a week's vacation, writer/directors Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou have fashioned a moving, suspenseful and utterly realistic film - with a talented cast of actors and non-actors alike (led by the extraordinary Charles Jang) - that the biggest, baddest Hollywood big budget filmmakers could learn from.

The plotline is simple: a young illegal Chinese immigrant in New York City, Ming Ding (Charles Jang), has gotten a few payments behind in the money he owes to the countrymen who got him into America, due to sending some money home to his wife and family. As the film opens, a couple of enforcers at Ming's apartment (which seems already overcrowded with Chinese immigrants), courtesy of the loan shark, to demand payment - taking what money Ming Ding has before cracking him in the back with a hammer and demanding that he owes the rest of his back payments ($800) by the end of that day, if he doesn't want a worse beating or his debt doubled.

The rest of the film spans the course of Ming Ding's day, where - as a bicycle delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant - he heads in the rain over and over again, frantically trying to raise enough money (after borrowing some of it from friends) to stay in the country ... and maybe save his life.

Sound kind of bland? Even boring? On the contrary; as Ming's frustrating day goes on, the young man pedaling all over Manhattan in the rain delivering food to people in a desperate attempt to raise the money, we grow to really care about the young man and his plight, rooting with him especially as we see the way he's treated by some of his customers. For sure, after seeing this film I will never, EVER look at another delivery boy the same way, knowing what one in a big city (especially one who doesn't speak the native language) can go through in a single day, and how important those tips are to his/her livelihood.

And therein lies the brilliance of Take Out; with a simple story, told in a straightforward way and without special effects or tricky camerawork (indeed, much of the film is grainy and muted in color, giving an even more realistic feel to what's going on), the viewer can focus on getting emotionally involved with Ming Ding's story. In just an 87-minute run time, the suspense builds and you truly grow to care about him; rooting for him to make enough money as he returns from each deliver and adds his tip money to the jar ... or deals with a variety customers who do everything from stiffing him on a tip at all, to throwing his tip in his face, to coming onto him sexually and more. So difficult to explain here, the film has to be seen to be believed - but only those with the hardest of hearts won't be on the edge of their seat as the film reaches its end, wondering if this poor guy who only wants a better life for him and his family, working a crap job in an uncaring city, will make enough money to stave off not only the doubling of his debt, but also a severe beating. Take Out is an original, immensely involving and touching film with an authenticity so real, it's almost surreal. True, unblemished, shoestring-budget filmmaking with more heart and soul than nearly anything released by any of the major studios today. Keep the Kleenex handy. And remember it the next time you order Chinese food in for delivery. ****1/2 - Reel Awesome- Reel Must-See