It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The story of a Chinese-American family experiencing transition. The father retires, the three daughters make changes in their lives, and the entire family begins to discover their true selves and what truly matters - family and love.Some of the descriptions call this family bizarrely dysfunctional - but really there is nothing outlandish or extremely unusual going on. Just people finding their way.The dinner scenes made me wish I was there - so much yummy food prepared lovingly by a caring mother. People from large families that eat together in a traditional way might take it for granted. But those of us whose families never sat and ate together, long for that kind of togetherness (and home-cooked food).

after first seeing the interview with the director and cast etc., i was hopeful that this would be a good film. NOT..... It is just so lame. Characters are not well developed, plot developments are soooo predictable. not one of the three sisters or their parents- become real people for the viewer. I think the screenwriter just tried to cram too many story lines in and could not decide where to focus. The father's story had promise.His scenes provide some entertaining and fun quirkiness; but he was left half formed, as was everyone else. I really cannot imagine WHAT the director et al. thought they were bringing new to the world . Maybe this was their run-through and their next films will be worth watching.For a much more interesting, entertaining film about Chinese American women/family, see the very worthwhile Saving Face.

I really enjoyed this movie. The characters were fun and the end left you in a good place. I just wish that you could have seen more of the mother. There that is the worst I have to say about this film. Everything else is just wonderful. The characters (except mom) are well rounded, the pilot believable and well paced, and the filming style a joy to watch. When you laugh out loud when you're by yourself you know you have a winner. Not to mention...Mia Riverton is very easy on the eyes.I was upset when I couldn't see this film in theaters. I was overjoyed when the producers decided to make it available for renting online. This is going to be a big step for independent films. So go do your part to support this film. I promise you won't to sorry.

I really appreciated the slow, deliberate, and organic way this movie unfolds. The film is nearly plot less in the best way possible; it is a movie about people simply existing within their world, and writer/director Georgia Lee wisely eschews the temptation to up the ante or artificially increase the dramatic conflict beyond what is absolutely necessary. There are no villains here, just people trying to exist and navigate their way through their relationships with one another.Everyone in this film -- from the three sisters (Jacqueline Kim, Elaine Kao, and Kathy Shao-Lin Lee) to the depressed father (Tzi Ma) to even the high school prankster (Sebastian Stan) and the overbearing mother (Freda Foh Shen) -- are fully fleshed out characters who transcend their respective "types" (aloof father, overbearing mother, responsible older sister, etc.) Only Sam Wong's distracted fiancé (Jayce Bartok) comes close to caricature, but his quiet interactions with Sam are always believable and never forced. The script is delicately and subtly written, and Lee manages to find a gentle humor in even the more potentially dark situations.It's nice to see such a quiet and subtly realized movie today, when even smaller character dramas have a tendency to resort to melodrama or artificially "quirky" characters to make their impact. This film definitely feels like Ang Lee at his "Ice Storm" and "Brokeback Mountain" best, but it has a lightness of touch that Lee himself hasn't had since "The Wedding Banquet" over a decade ago.This is both a film and a filmmaker that deserve to be discovered.