Thursday, September 17, 2009

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers



Mr. Shi (Henry O), a retired Chinese rocket scientist arrives in the US to visit his recently divorced daughter, Yilan (Feihong Yu). The atmosphere is heavy with secrecy as the father and daughter tip toe around each other. Shi wanting to help her set herself right and Yilan find his help to be an intrusion. But the real interesting interaction is between Shi and Madam (Vida Ghahremani), a lady he meets at the local park. She speaks to him in Persian and he replies in Mandarin but they communicate better than most people who have a common language. The short story by Yiyun Li comes to life in this Wayne Wang film in visceral fashion.

Rating: * * *

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