On Criterion I watched a 2004 indie film called Takeout, directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, about an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Ming (Charles Jang), struggling to get by in NYC, sending money back to his family in China, and in debt to a loan shark, needing to raise $800 by the end of the night, with 30% interest included. He works as a delivery man for a Chinese restaurant, hustling to get enough tips and pay to add to his stash, and dealing with pressure from the loan shark’s hired goons, stress from the restaurant and difficult customers, trying to keep his bike from breaking or getting stolen, and trying to keep it together during a difficult day of working in the rain.
I did like seeing what a big difference twenty years makes, seeing past delivery with calling the restaurant and paying in cash at the door, as opposed to today’s app-based delivery and pre-paying for meals. And that with a lot of migrants working as delivery people on motorbikes today, it’s still very relevant with the struggle.
I got really into this, how realistic it felt, and could get into how frustrating things felt for the characters, especially whenever a wrench gets thrown into Ming’s way and making me feel for him a lot. Sean Baker would go on to make Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, and Shih-Ching Tsou would produce those films, so it’s cool seeing some early work from them.
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