Customer Reviews

Pushing Hands

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Watched twice, still as powerful as the first time since I watched it years ago. It is a story about a Tai Chi master from Taiwan and living with his American daughter in Law who doesn't speak any Chinese except "Thank you". As the time goes on, the film portrayed 3 generations in this family: the son, the father, the American wife and the American born boy. Not only the communication creates a huge gap between each generation; also each one of them lives a life with different characters. At one scene when the father telling his son that he is no longer valuable considered by the society and his life is going no where; the son also told him that throughout his life he is trying to put everyone's life together with houses, more money, and jobs rather than finding out the true meaning for the family and the bond each one hold for the other. The film shows how each one explored their own worthiness and how it has impact other people within the family. Superb acting makes the film very real and touching. Indeed a film that is true to life and true to our hearts.

While Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon shot Ang Lee into household ranks for his fluid, creative martial arts histrionics, this is no less a masterpiece in the somewhat more subdued version of Kung Fu -- the chinese art of Tai Chi.

The story is wrapped around an old Mr. Chu,a tai chi master (played almost effortlessly by Sihung Lung) who has moved from the rigors of a Beijing life to settle down in the suburbs of NY with his son Alex and his American wife, who's a novelist working from home. Mr Chu is at his wit's end, in a new culture, sans the language, spending his days watching Hong Kong videos vocally critiquing the Kung Fu moves much to the obvious chagrin of his American daughter in law.

While the pretext is predictable (They Dont Get Along), the emotional tussle of his son as an intermediary between his wife and father is well told, even comical at times. The film explores the Chinese ethic of filial relations -- father-son / man-wife / father-daughterinlaw etc. The movie is of a subtle, soft-spoken vein despite the loud emotions.

One minor grouse -- Tai Chi could have been a bit more integral to the story in a manner that food was to Eat Drink Man Woman ( another sensual feast from Lee) particularly in defining the character of Mr. Chu. It is a little difficult to digest that a "master" of Tai Chi could have the level of conceit and stubbornness that his character is shown to display.

But that's minor. I doubt Lee would put this movie on the top of his favorites stack, but this is a precious peep into the Lee of yore, the more honest movie maker before he set about making Hollywood blockbusters. Reason enough for me to watch it.

I can't think of another director like Ang Lee, in that his films are so vastly different from each other yet all are so great, each in their own unique way.

Like many of his films (including Crouching Tiger), this one stars Sihung Lung, a great Chinese actor who unfortunately died of liver failure last month (May 2002) after filming "The Touch." He is amazing to watch, as usual, and plays very credibly in Pushing Hands as a Tai Chi master who moves to New York City to live with his son, his son's tightly strung Euro-American daughter in law and their bilingual child.

The "parent immigrates to live with children and doesn't fit in" story has been told many ways in many films, but somehow i doubt many of the rest of them are this human, this insightful, or this delightfully humorous.

It's really hard for one who hasn't seen Pushing Hands to imagine from the title, the tagline, the trailer and reviews what makes this film great, because what makes it great is Ang Lee, his constant writing companion James Schamus (also of Crouching Tiger fame), and the great acting, led by Sihung Lung.

If you're not already a fan of Ang Lee's other work besides Crouching Tiger (i.e. Eat Drink Man Woman, The Wedding Banquet, et al), then you might want to rent this one before you buy it, but if you already know you love Ang Lee, it's worth the purchase.

Who thinks that the intelligent niche audience that would go see a non-Hollywood film would appreciate the sides being chopped off? This is one film that only an idiot would think did not need to be done in a widescreen format. This is DVD guys wake up! Great film though. Really touching and made me want to call all my elderly family when I got home. I have yet to see an Ang Lee film that isn't worth a Special Edition version. Another wonderful film by a master.

The movie starts out slow, but ends with a powerful message. I found the movie particularly touching to me because I am from a mixed family (one parent Caucasian and one parent Asian), as the characters in the movie. It demonstrates how the element of respect to one's elders, which is so important in the Asian culture, can clash with American modern society. I found the movie uplifting and inspiring; and also gave me a new respect for my immigrant parent, realizing the struggles he faced coming to America and dealing with its culture.

Ang Lee ("The Ice Storm", "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman") directs this story of a Chinese man moving in with his son and an American daughter-in-law. A poignant story of generational and cultural conflict. It is easy to tell the beginnings of a master director here.

Ang Lee, a master I cherish as much as director Wayne Wang, outdid himself with this offering, TUI SHOU, "PUSHING HANDS"--which happens to be a vital part of T'ai Ch'i training. If you've seen anything of Jackie Chan's, Wayne Wang's or martial arts films from late 1980s and early 1990s, you'll recognize the true star of PUSHING HANDS, the amazing Sihung Lung. In PUSHING HANDS, Master Sihung Lung plays Master Chu (the name would crop up for him again in EAT DRINK, MAN WOMAN)--a T'ai Ch'i master who goes to live with his son Alex (a very sexy Bo Wang) in Westchester, New York.

Trouble is, Alex's American wife Martha (Deb Snyder) hates the old traditionalist. It will turn out much the worse for all of them before the film is done. I will not spoil the simple story of an old Chinese master trying comically and sometimes sadly to fit in American life. It's enough to say he takes a crap job at a fancy Chinese restaurant to give himself something to do, even though he cooks for and cares for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson.

He's got to get out and do something: wifey hates him being around and she doesn't want their son being too Chinese.

What I love here is that this is the original washed-up superhero movie. Master Chu, once the greatest T'ai Ch'i master in all China, is a dishwasher in America. He eventually wanders over to a senior center, where plenty of Chinese youth are learning different things in a sort of YMCA program. Master Chu starts teaching T'ai Ch'i. Naturally, he lands himself in trouble when he accidentally throws a big fat student right into an old lay's cooking workshop.

The scene with Mr. Chu kicking some young punks around is classic yet quiet and gentle. This film truly epitomizes T'ai Ch'i. If you ever wondered what it is all really about--and how it works--THIS is the film for you. It also puts a positive spin on retirement and its joys, if you can find them.

Now, get this: I just shelled out a fortune for what will probably be a crappy, battered and used version of this DVD. After you've done the same and watched this early Lee film, you'll be as happy as I am right now...and I'm only just waiting for it to be delivered.

Five Stars for the MOVIE (the price sucks!).

Hands down (pun intended) this is the single best martial arts movie ever made.

and noticeably so in terms of budget (thus the four stars), but nonetheless excellent in establishing his themes of the clashes between Eastern and Western cultures, and his synthesis of the two.

The actor playing the father next appear's in Lee's lovely "Eat Drink Man Woman," and as Sir Te/Bel Lia in his extraordinary "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon".

This is probably the only movie that comes any close in its depiction of the actual practice of Tai Ji Quan. There is a lot of silence, character developement is very subtle. I gave it 4 stars, because if it d be anymore subtle, the movie would just have to stop all together. So Im giving it 4 stars and a thank you for keeping on moving to a happy resolution. He finds a chick;)