The movie tells the story of Beijing’s taijiquan teacher Zhu Lao retired, was received by his son to the United States and the American daughter-in-law to live together, but Zhu Lao due to language barriers and different living habits, resulting in all kinds of contradictions with the foreign daughter-in-law, and ultimately, Zhu Lao does not want to destroy the son’s family life, preferring to rent a room alone outside to live, but also do not want to return to his son’s side.
After watching this movie, I was deeply touched by the fact that every family has its own problems, and that the elderly living with their children has always been a controversial topic. Objectively speaking, it does lower the quality of life of the children, and it becomes a burden for them, but traditionally and morally, the children have the obligation to let the elderly live a happy and dignified life in their twilight years, and I am afraid that relying on the elderly alone is very difficult to do so.
This is the first installment of Ang Lee’s Family Trilogy, which consists of PUSHER (1991), THE JOYFUL BANQUET (1993) and EATERS AND WOMEN (1994).
1991 / China, Taiwan, U.S.A. / Drama, Family / Ang Lee / Lang Xiong Wang Lai
After his son Xiaosheng (Wang Bozhao) brings him to the United States from Beijing, Old Zhu (Lang Xiong) not only fails to enjoy the happiness, but also has many new worries due to the language barrier and differences in lifestyle with his daughter-in-law, Martha (Deb Snyder), a writer (Old Zhu is not curious about Martha’s world, and Martha is curious about Old Zhu’s world, but does not want to understand it, but is disgusted by it after she is curious about it). (he has a taste of what it’s like to be a parasite in his son’s house!) He leaves his home in anger.
A chance incident makes the American media marvel at Lao Zhu’s Tai Chi skills, and Xiao Sheng and Martha find Lao Zhu after watching the TV news, but at this point Lao Zhu has realized that it is better to be in a miserable situation than to be in a precarious one.
