A Thousand Years of Good Prayers / Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart

A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS, 2007, Magnolia Films, 83 min. Once again, director Wayne Wang beautifully explores the struggle between freedom and traditional family duty with the story of a father and daughter who’ve become strangers as a consequence of the censorship of Maoist China. Mr. Shi (a superb performance by Henry O), a retired widower from Beijing, comes to the United States to help his only daughter, Yilan (Faye Yu), through a divorce, but he soon learns that his goals are in direct conflict with her desire to move on. Winner of four awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART, 1985, 88 min. In this heartfelt gem, a young woman in Chinatown struggles between her desire to marry and her need to take care of her aging mother. One of Wayne Wang’s earliest and best examinations of the tension between individual desire and familial responsibility.