| Review:
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A kind of road movie to nowhere that literally goes
around in circles and plays out in the course of a single
day, Take Out has got plenty of baggage on board too, but
most of it simmers inside the head of its solemn Chinese
delivery man protagonist, Ming Ding. And like NYC based
Iranian-American Ramin Bahrini's morning coffee and donuts
dirge, Man Push Cart, the tragic tale humanizes those most
invisible in our midst, yet with whom we thoughtlessly connect
on a daily basis.***
Co-directed by Sean Baker and Taiwanese born Shih-Ching
Tsou, Take Out abruptly intrudes into the life of Ming Ching
(Charles Jang), as the undocumented New York City immigrant
is rudely awakened in his hovel filled with fellow illegals,
by the loan sharks who smuggled him into the country. Ming
has fallen behind in his payments to settle his exorbitant
outstanding debt, because he sent money back home to his
wife and child. And to make clear their insistence that
he pay up by the end of the day, they beat him with a hammer.***
Ming, who toils long hours delivering food by bike
from a local Chinese takeout eatery, is desperate to borrow
whatever he can, and then resolves to make up the difference
in tips that day by doing double delivery duty while his
agreeable co-worker hangs out in the store instead. We follow
along with Ming on his dreary rounds through pouring rain,
where he is more often than not treated rudely, ridiculed,
and stuck with stingy tips. And to muster and sustain any
sense of dignity and humanity that he can, Ming nearly wordlessly
detaches himself from the world around him emotionally,
as a crucial survival tool against being crushed by the
nearly overwhelming forces stacked against him.***
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