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The good and the bad
"Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity" - directed by Mina Shum
05.01 - Posted by Editor
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05.01.03 - In her new feature, "Long Life, Happiness, and Prosperity," director Mina Shum returns to the Chinese-Canadian world of Vancouver for the first time since her 1995 debut, the impressive "Double Happiness."
Mindy Ho (Valerie Tian), the twelve year old heroine of "Long Life, Happiness, and Prosperity," uses Taoist magic to bring happiness to her lonely, overworked single mom, Kin (nicely played with tough cynicism by Sandra Oh, who also starred in "Double Happiness"). But Mindy's naive magic hits the wrong targets, accidentally touching the lives of her community members: a middle-aged couple coping with an empty nest and sudden unemployment and a renowned butcher who expects his son to follow in his footsteps when the boy wants to be a Buddhist monk.
Shum describes "Long Life"'s style as magic realism and fills the film with love potions and lucky coins - which never work as Mindy intend. The love potion gets drunk by the wrong people and the lucky coin falls on the wrong shoulder. Alas, the whimsy from these magical mixups often falls flat and the picture's pace slows down halfway through. And while charming in themselves, the three disparate stories don't quite hold together as one film.
But what keeps audiences watching is Sandra Oh's performance and her character's story. Kin refreshingly breaks the stereotype of the nice, good Asian woman - here she's so bitter that she spurns the advances of the kind, sincere Alvin Wong (Russell Yuen), manager of the restaurant where Kin works. Another strong performance comes from veteran actress Tsai Chin (best known as the over-ambitious mum in Joy Luck Club) who plays the middle-aged Hun Ping Wong.
"Long Life" is a pleasant change from the loud, blow-'em-up action flicks that Hollywood churns out. It's a light comedy that carries no lofty aspirations. Though not as polished as it could have been, "Long Life" is a worthy family entertainment.
Allan Tong is a Toronto filmmaker and freelance journalist. His film "The Red Album" features a North American Asian cast and is scheduled to shoot next year.
this movie sucks..just like the rest of her films..the mindy girl can not ACT at all..fake sucks..you might as well throw away your money instead of seeing this film
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