Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart is basically the touching story of a Chinese immigrant widow who becomes sad because she's told by a fortune teller that she would soon die, so she constantly reminds her last single daughter to marry and resolves to visit her homeland one last time. Kim Chew is the widow and her real-life daughter Laureen is the one who feels pressured to tie the knot. They both give good, wonderfully nuanced performances along with Victor Wong as the uncle who wants to marry Kim. Look for Amy Hill, who I remember as the Grandma in "All-American Girl", as one of the other married daughters and Joan Chen as one of the young mah-jong players. Director Wayne Wang provides exquisite Chinese-American atmosphere in the Chinatown setting of California. Plenty of subtle humorous touches throughout. Nothing more to say except if you want to experience the Chinese-American way of life on film, Dim Sum is as good a place to start as any.

The story of a mother who cannot be happy until her daughter is married and she feels her time to leave this Earth is near.The matter is not helped any when she walks in on her daughter having sex with her boyfriend. The mother never speaks English. This is best driven home during a mah jong game with other ladies. The mother speaks endlessly with one woman, the other woman in English, mother speaks only Chinese.I think there was accusations of cheating at the game, then all the English dissipated.Hands down, it was Uncle Tam who made this thing work and kept the situation from getting too serious.He just wanted to please. When a special dinner didn't turn out quite like he wanted, he simply put the lid on the pot and forgot about it.My brother would record this program off ETV years ago, but I suspect his copy is now solid blue. Shame to never get the chance to see this one again. It was a winner.

This is a sweet old-fashioned and knowing valentine to Chinese American family life in San Francisco. In many ways, it seems like a predecessor to the Joy Luck Club, complete with Joan Chen as a young Mah Jongg player. The pace here is somewhat leisurely, but the vignettes are warm and satisfying enough to sustain interest throughout.