Tui shou (Pushing Hands) Reviews

Absolutely powerful film, using 3 different perspectives to look at a family of mixed race. The storyline is about immigration and culture recognition, it's darkly humorous and yet tragic. The actors didn't have any acting experience which made the film even more natural and realistic.

Interesting! Great story plot.

Ang Lee's rarely known martial art film. Sihung Lung (Eat, Drink, Men, Women) acted as a tai-chi master working quietly in Chinese restaurant until he finally was forced to use his tai-chi. Unable to speak English yet always understand the heart of men. Several culture clash created some comical moments that's true in its own sense. The ending was shocking and touching at the same time.

"Compared to loneliness, persecution is easy. Look at how much hardship and injustice I've endured . . . To study the Soft Internal Style of Strength, we pursue more refined states of being. With the loss of tension, we attain concentration. And from that, we achieve carefree nothingness, but this is nearly impossible to attain."


Runaway Grandpa


"The world is so big, I'll find a little room where I can spend my worthless old age. Life passes before one's eyes like smoke, nothing but emptiness. One shouldn't set one's heart on anything."

Hey, I liked THE WEDDING BANQUET lol.
Ok, maybe this isnt as good as it could be (it feels very 80s for some reason & the actress who played the wife was just awful), but it is Ang Lees film debut. See THE ICE STORM & EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN.

Through the precise point-of-view, Ang Lee proves to the world that culture shock and generational conflict is so much more than what it seems on the surface. A being a good example of the cinema art, issues here aren't the by product of social hierarchy and cultural intolerance, it is about humanity. The story follows the long-practiced Tai Chi master Mr. Chu as the victim of Communism thus moved to America, close to his own son, than discovers that being a guest in someone else's country really strips away one's prideful past and identity. The film did not offer a resolution from a social perspective because in many ways, Pushing Hands isn't solely social commentary as it may appears to be. Instead, like most Italian Neo-realism films, a glimpse of hope for the pursuit of happiness was given. At the end, we see Mr. Chu and his well reserved liking towards Mrs. Chen is once again re-kindled. Although two of them were brought together by their familiarity, fate has put them on the same wayward path. This time, they live in high-rise apartments. And against the urban backdrop much different from where they're from, a connection was made. The film then fade to black. Like the smile at the end of The Bicycle Thief, and the marching band in last shot of Nights Of Cabiria, a hint of hope was given, leaving the audience on edge, in the same time emotionally satisfied.

An absorbing and direct film about love, family, culture and modernisation.

Absolutely powerful film, using 3 different perspectives to look at a family of mixed race. The storyline is about immigration and culture recognition, it's darkly humorous and yet tragic. The actors didn't have any acting experience which made the film even more natural and realistic.

Ang Lee

[b]Pushing Hands
Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink Man Woman
Ice Storm[/b]