She is about his age, is from Iran, which she thinks of as Persia, and is living with her Iranian-American daughter. They have never met a 'real' Chinese person in their lives, and so what? One day on a park bench, he strikes up a conversation with Madame ( Vida Ghahremani).

They are courteous to him, but uninterested. He speaks to people he finds around the condo pool, and is surprised that they don't have to go to work. We see this corner of America through his eyes. He will wander around and try to have conversations in his imperfect English. She will find excuses to be absent more and more. He will begin to shop for food and cook meals, in an attempt to turn her apartment into a place that feels more like home. She is guarded.Īs the film develops, he will pry more, and she will reveal some long-hidden feelings. As they have dinner, silences threaten to overwhelm them. She takes him home to her antiseptic condo. She has not seen her father in years, yet does not kiss him.

Shi (Henry O) gets off his flight in San Francisco and looks around for a daughter who should be waiting for him. This in microcosm is Ozu's ' Tokyo Story,' the only film I ever showed my film class that made some of them cry. Their values have grown apart, their lifestyles are opposite, they suppress what they're feeling. A father from China arrives in America for his first visit in years with his daughter. The critic Todd McCarthy is correct in calling the film 'Ozu-like.' It is an intensely observed, small-scale family drama involving disagreement between generations.

Youtube a thousand years