Be There or Be Square
Be There or Be Square
| 25 December 1998 (USA)
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The story of two Chinese immigrants' struggles in America. Yuan Liu has lived in LA for years. He has no stable job, no family and lives in a wagon. He seems content with his life until the day he meets Qing Li, a woman with the big "American dream".

Reviews
Perry Kate

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Ploydsge

just watch it!

CommentsXp

Best movie ever!

Chirphymium

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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pacdisciple

This is a nice movie but there are a lot of racial undertones in it. Every scene with an "American" depicts them as stupid or violent. It's true that many American films have given little respect to Asian people. It's true that the roles of Asian actors in American films are usually limited to "Chinese delivery boy" and "nerd".But Bu Jian Bu San seems to serve as a payback for all the injustice done to Asians in American film. It's interesting how the filmmakers pull it off. It's carried out in a way that's culturally Asian; indirect. The subliminal American stereotypes are intricately woven into the story line. One scene, you see the van pull away while the camera fixes its focus on an overweight white woman on a payphone. Another scene, the main characters are talking about how cops in America will shoot you and the girl replies in fear "why?!".Other than all of this crap, the story is nice.

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kevin shi

Japanese, Korean romantic movies are well known in Asia. My sassy girl (Korea), love letter (Japan) etc. got universal acceptation. But this romantic Chinese movie never loses to them.Two people falling in love depends on mutual understanding. Appearance is just the secondary thing. LiuYuan finally won LiQing's heart just because of his honesty and kindness though he was not handsome. What LiuYuan dreamed in the airplane was impressive. It just clearly showed how he loved her. To my happy, LiQing finally chose him. In addition to that, the witty words made me laughing from the start to the end.The director XiaoGang Feng is well known in China. From the end of 90s, his every HeSuiPian (happy new year movie) was popular in China. The newest A World Without Thief also succeeded. As to performance, there are no other pairs can be compared with You Ge and Fan Xu. They are really gold partners. Impeccable.The most romantic Chinese movie I ever watched. 9/10

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kungfu-lish84

This is a very interesting movie. This movie revealed the hardship of the previous generation of Chinese persons immigrating to America and finding no work. It had both humor and irony woven into the plot. It detailed the relationship of a man and woman both struggling in America to make ends meet, and the disillusionment of the "American dream." It used irony and American and Chinese stereotypes. One memorable part is when the man is teaching American police officers Mao-ist sayings to assist the police in arresting citizens that speak only Mandarin. This is a very funny movie, it is even funnier if perceptions of both the East of China and the West of America are understood. I do agree that this may not appeal to the average Westerner, but it greatly appealed to me...Great movie!!!

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sowhat23

Why have I not heard about this film when it first came out in 1999? Well, I dont' know. One thing I do know, is that, this is everything I had been looking for in a film.Director and screen-writer Feng, if you see this sir, please contact me?You have just made number one on my personal hero list. I just came up with one after seeing you film.I would like the opportunity to learn from you, to see, to hear the things you feel with you sixth sense.regards

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