Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart

A widowed mother and her daughter, in her thirties, in San Francisco's Chinatown. The mother wants to visit China before she dies; the daughter will not marry and will not leave her alone. Each assumes what the other wants, and neither asks. The film is not interested in debating immigrant identity. It is interested in the quiet negotiation inside one house: the kitchen, the preparing of food and conversations at the door are the whole of the plot. Decisions are not taken openly; they emerge from within daily habit. The form is calm and still: the camera rarely moves, the scenes are long, and the objects in the house occupy nearly as much room as the characters. Wayne Wang directed. He made this after Chan Is Missing, and the two together are among the first films in American independent cinema to centre the Chinese American experience. Some of the cast are non-professionals; Kim Chew and Laureen Chew, who play mother and daughter, are mother and daughter in life. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet family drama and eighties American independents. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events. The film is made almost entirely of small moments and its conflict stays implicit throughout.