{"id":2844,"date":"2009-02-06T18:15:18","date_gmt":"2009-02-07T02:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=2844"},"modified":"2009-02-06T20:05:50","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T04:05:50","slug":"dim-sum-funeral-anna-chi-2008-canada-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=2844","title":{"rendered":"Dim Sum Funeral (Anna Chi, 2008):  Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?author=49\">Kathleen Amboy<\/a>. Viewed at the Metro 4, Santa Barbara Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.imagination-llc.com\/Dim_Sum_Funeral\/big.jpg\" alt=\"dim-sum\" width=\"210\" height=\"325\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\"\/>Okay so I\u2019m a foodie and the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1216477\/\" target=_new>Dim Sum Funeral<\/a><\/em> was tasty Chinese dumplings \u2013 often trekking myself\u00a0to Chinatown, San Francisco to indulge in such treats.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"Well, the literal meaning of Dim Sum is \u201cto touch the heart,\u201d which is exactly what this film does. This is a story of your average dysfunctional family with four siblings, coming together for their mother\u2019s funeral.\n\nThe last request of Mrs. Xiao is to be given a traditional Chinese funeral, in which her personal assistant and executrix Viola (Talia Shire) has every intention of carrying out.  The four siblings hesitantly commit themselves to the preparations which include praying (on bended knee) daily for 10 minutes, hiring 2 (chanting) Buddhist monks, and purchasing various \u201cgifts\u201d for their departed mother.\n\nThere is a meld of humor, drama, and heart-felt emotion as Elizabeth (Julia Nickson), Alexander (Russell Wong), Victoria (Francoise Yip), and MeiMei (Steph Song) work out their differences amongst each other, and gain respect for their deceased (and over-bearing)\u00a0mother whom they previously felt embittered towards.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>A healing occurs and bonds form as each work out their own day-to-day struggles in life such as the painful loss of a child, extra-marital affairs, single parenting and sexual identity, which all ends with a surprising twist.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking for \u201ccreativity\u201d it\u2019s there in the writing, acting and unfolding of the plot \u2013 so look deep.  There are no splashy special effects, CGI or stylistic editing, just simplicity.  This film has a terrific ensemble cast of seasoned familiar faces.<\/p>\n<p>It was such a great honor to have Anna Chi and several cast members present for Q &amp; A \u2013 I found most of the filmmakers at the SBIFF to be refreshingly honest and humble about their work.  I was curious how Talia Shire ended up in Anna\u2019s film; her reply was \u201cfriend of a friend\u201d and that she wanted a non-Asian actor to play Viola and Talia loved the script, as she had recently mourned the loss of her own mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy. Viewed at the Metro 4, Santa Barbara Film Festival. Okay so I\u2019m a foodie and the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title Dim Sum Funeral was tasty Chinese dumplings \u2013 often trekking myself\u00a0to Chinatown, San Francisco to indulge in such treats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}