Take Out (2004 film)
| Take Out | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
Sean Baker Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Produced by | Sean Baker Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Written by | Sean Baker Shih-Ching Tsou |
| Starring | Charles Jang Jeng-Hua Yu Wang-Thye Lee Justin Wan |
| Edited by | Sean Baker |
| Distributed by | CAVU Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Mandarin English |
Take Out is a 2004 independent film depicting a day-in-the-life of an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. The widely acclaimed film, co-written and directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, has been nominated for the John Cassavetes award in the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards.
Take Out was filmed in and near upper-Manhattan, New York, in the spring of 2003. It debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 2004. In June 2008 it was given a limited release through CAVU Pictures. On September 1, 2009, Kino Entertainment released Take Out in the US on a Region 1 DVD.
Take Out is a day-in-the-life of Ming Ding (Charles Jang), an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. Ming is behind with payments on his huge debt to the smugglers who brought him to the United States. The collectors have given him until the end of the day to deliver the money that is due. After borrowing most of the money from friends and relatives, Ming realizes that the remainder must come from the day's delivery tips. In order to do so, he must make more than double his average daily income.
In a social-realist style, the camera follows Ming on his deliveries throughout the upper Manhattan neighborhood where social and economic extremes exist side by side. Intercutting between Ming's deliveries and the daily routine of the restaurant, Take Out presents a harshly real look at the daily lives of illegal Chinese immigrants in New York City.
Take Out is a feature film shot on digital video due to both the cinema vérité style and the non-existent budget. Employing an ensemble cast of both professional and nonprofessional actors, and shooting without a full crew in an actual take-out restaurant during operating hours, gave filmmakers Tsou and Baker a liberating experience in which acting and story became the only concern. The "run and gun" method of filmmaking created a raw energy that the filmmakers feel they have captured on film.
Taking cues from the filmmaking of Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers, Take Out puts a distinctly human face on the lives of people largely hidden from and ignored by the mainstream.
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