Customer Reviews

The Killing of a Chinese Cookie

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, so I went to what felt like a miniature monthly comic-con being held at a Los Angeles animation studio called "Titmouse". This was my first time attending this small gathering and was surprised at how quickly I was able to meet new people. In fact, the first person I met was Derek Shimoda, the Director and Producer of this documentary called "The Killing of a Chinese Cookie."

Confession time. I used to collect those nifty little fortunes that come in Fortune Cookies. Why did I collect them? Well...(tugging at my collar) sometimes, the "fortunes" were...well, spot on. Othertimes, I wish that they were. And sometimes they were just plain cute. I'm a guy and I just used the word "cute", so that's saying something.

Needless to say, when I fortuitously meet the man behind a documentary on the origin of fortune cookies, I immediately go home and order my copy on Amazon. I had to know what was the real history of this small and embarrassing collection I've chaotically accumulated on the surface of my dresser.

The documentary is facinating and Derek sure as hell knows how to grab our attention: It opens with an interveiw of two employees of a State Lottery, both expressing their surprise when over 100+ people won a 25million jackpot lotto by playing the numbers they got on their fortune cookies. See? So right now I'm not feeling quite so embarrassed. I'm feeling stupid for never having played any of the numbers from my own fortunes.

Anyway...

This ear-grabbing opener is followed by the surprising Japanese origins of the Chinese cookie, and details how the World War 2 concentration camps for the Japanese contributed to the fortune cookie being successfully proliferated in the United States by Chinese eateries. If any of this sounds contestable, you're in good company. The documentary follows the confusing origin all the way into a circus courtroom, the verdict of which will be rightly left to the documentary to divulge.

Where the documentary goes from there can be best answered by where doesn't it go? It pretty much covers all grounds, interviewing a former miss North Carolina whose victory had been serendipitously forecasted by a fortune cookie. We even get to meet one or two of the people responsible for writing the quick wisdom that is signature of these cookies. Especially delicious is the segment on the outtakes -- those darker parables that never made it inside your fortune cooke (and the darkened interview of "Joe Wang" who wrote them).

This is a fun watch, and unlike so many documentaries, I never tired of where it was going. Killing of a Chinese Cookie, despite the title, adopts a somewhat upbeat, pleasant and friendly tone that is a refreshing break from documentaries warning about how fast food and fast loans are killing us. This is definitely an independent production and so despite its superior quality, I'm sure distribution is probably limited. In which case, if you can't Netflix this one then I guess you'll just have to take a shot at good fortune and eat this one up through Amazon. Enjoy!