Movie reviews for A thousand years of good prayers
This is a well acted story based on the book of a collection of stories of modern life in China compared to the United States. It tells the story of the relationship between a father and a daughter, the father Mr. Shi is played by Henry O(Romeo must die) while the daughter Yilan is played by the lovely Feihong Yu(reminds me of a young Michelle Yeoh).
We join as Yilan collects her father from the airport, as he is visiting America for one of his tours, but as with any concerned parent, what he is really interested in, is if his daughter is happy in America. At first as with any cultural change Mr. Shi is a little perplexed at his new surroundings, from the unemployed girl getting a suntan, and having to avert his eyes while trying to hold a decent conversation with her will be cause for some amusement, showing the diversity between values from communist China and the contemporary United States.
The highlight of the movie are the conversations Mr. Shi has with an Iranian woman(played wonderfully by Vida Ghahremani) on the bench at a local park, both hardly speak any english and their atempts to communicate using all they can think of is sure to ring a bell with many individuals, or people we have tried to communicate to before, after a while you as well as Mr. Shi look forward to the conversations in the park, they act as a suitable distraction for the problems going on at home.
We find as Mr. Shi is reaching the end of his life he wants to make up for whatever pain he may have caused his daughter, although well meaning, we find that his daughter is a little distant and reluctant to accept his advice after what it seems as an absent father for so long, and like any american she certainly doesn’t feel he has the right to meddle in her affairs.
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