Chinese Take-Away (2011)

Load of rubbish!!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I grabbed this DVD from the library with not much of expectations. The reviews on the cover were definitely convincing,but it is expected that no one will trash their own film. Having said that,i haven't seen the cover of "The Room". Surprisingly,the end result turned out to be a good,light comedy which was engaging till the end.The movie tries to solve every puzzle and clears fog over many issues that stems while watching it. The opening short is a bit bizarre but the story is narrated in a beautiful manner to join the dots. Being a Wes Anderson fan,the small things about characters fascinates me and for a movie romantics,this film has loads of small bits which are likable and pivotal in the story-line. I enjoyed the movie and would recommend to anyone who is looking for a light comedy instead of wasting time elsewhere. Enjoy the movie.

"Enjoyable but a bit sentimental" says Yalza, from Denmark, as a title to his critic for this movie. I don't quite understand it, this is not a Rambo movie, this is a very subtle composition about human values, about ethical decisions, about people reaching out to each other, trying to cope with emotions, sometimes small ones, sometimes too big and impossible to grasp in one take.I was mesmerized throughout the whole film, for moments afraid that the incredible pacing and magic created by this superb director (Sebastián Borensztein, also the script writer) could come down with some unforgivable faux pas that would destroy the fantastic story being told. But that improbability never happened. Not even in the most minuscule detail. Ricardo Darín created such a strong introverted character (Roberto) endearing from the very beginning with his constant cursing (I didn't see the English subtitles, but I'm afraid that most Argentinian cursing vocabulary is untranslatable) while Ignacio Huang (Jun) brought to life this lost, penniless Chinese immigrant, incapable even to say ROBERTO due to his total lack of the Spanish language (plus the handicap that Chinese people cannot pronounce R at the beginning of a word); Muriel Santa Ana as Mari projected so well her (not hidden at all) great love for Roberto that one felt immediately for her.And so it goes with the whole rest of the cast, all perfect, even to the smallest part. This movie grabbed me with the story of the lost immigrant in a country without the language because I was there and although it wasn't that tragic, I know how one can feel when it's impossible to communicate.There are some heart wrenching emotional moments (the ones I suppose our friend Yalza from Denmark found objectionable tear-jerkers) but they are an intrinsic part of those situations and their inevitable conclusion, otherwise we'd be dealing with robots.Anyway, to me this is an impeccable movie, so far removed from any Hollywood product (I'm convinced that Argentinian movies delve with the same profoundly human feelings that once did the Italian neorrealism in the 1940s) and --as far as I know and I don't know that much-- only Brazilian cinematography matches those feelings with the same intensity.Try to watch it because, honestly, it's a jewel of a movie. And oh! its final scene... what a gorgeous final scene to end a perfectly gorgeous movie!

With a few days apart I just saw this movie, and another one from Argentina also: "Las Acacias." Both deal with lone wolves Argentine middle age males, who find themselves in a situation where they can give a hand to a foreigner in distress. Both characters are very reluctant to do so, until both witness the treatment these two immigrants get from the police or border agents. At that time, like kicked into action by the either racism, or just plain indifference by authorities in uniform, the protagonists feel the need to assert they are NOTHING like the guy in uniform.In Las Acacias many have already highlighted the performance given by a baby a few months old. Justly so. How did the director managed to get this kind of acting from someone who neither speaks nor understand spoken language? I do not know, but he did it, and on the shoulders of three magnificent performances this movie achieves what others costing many times more can only hope. Incidentally, the name of the film in Spanish, "Cuento Chino", literally means "Chinese tale", but in Spanish means a story that is very hard to believe.

Awesome Argentine movie, freaking hilarious !!From the beginning to the end, excellent and funny jokes...the much the time passes more funny the jokes get. The Chinese guy makes you LOL all the time...the Argentine guy is really funny, and the story itself is comical amusing and very entertaining.The story is about rare and freakish events that may happen to anyone anytime.Watch it and you'll know what i'm talking about.Be ready to have an awesome time and entertain your self with a really great comedy !!!