Take Out [Blu-ray] [Criterion Collection]

Director: Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou Sean Baker

Overview

Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou make their feature debut as writer/directors with the documentary-style DV drama Take Out. Korean-American actor Charles Jang stars as Ming Ding, a Chinese illegal immigrant struggling to make ends meet working as a deliveryman at a take-out restaurant. His day begins when he is rousted, beaten, and threatened with more violence by two men over an 800-dollar debt, which he incurred because he felt obligated to send some money back to his wife and child in China. Ming scrapes together what he can. His co-worker, Young (Jeng-Hua Yu), lends him some money, and offers to forgo his deliveries for the day so Ming can make more cash. The film follows the stoic Ming, who speaks little English, over the course of the day as he interacts with the cooks and restaurant manager (Wang-Thye Lee, an actual employee of the restaurant where Take Out was filmed), and races in the rain on a multitude of deliveries on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, interacting with a broad spectrum of New Yorkers. The filmmakers made Take Out on an extremely low budget, even by indie standards, using the Internet to find their cast, and shooting at the restaurant during business hours with a skeleton crew. Take Out was shown at the 2004 New York Asian American Film Festival and at the 2004 Nashville Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/13/2022
UPC:	0715515276719
Original Release:	2004
Source:	Criterion Collection
Language:	English
Time:	1:28:00
Sales rank:	1,197

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Charles Jang	Ming Ding
Jeng-Hua Yu	Young
Wang-Thye Lee	Big Sister
Justin Wan	Wei
Jeff Huang	Ma,Ming's Cousin
Shih-Yun Tsou	Collector #1
Joe Chien	Collector #2
Kenny Pang	Door Opener
Waley Liu	Ming's Roommate,Ming's Roommate #3
Ed Jansen	Ming's Roommate #2
Ethel Brooks	First Delivery
Victor Sally	Fried Hard
Tanya Perez	Second Delivery
Maria Greenspan	Portuguese-Speaking Delivery
Sandra McCullogh	Mother with Two Children,Running Toddler,Older Sister
Javier Cortes	Nice Tipper
J.P. Partland	Horn Delivery
Theodore Bouloukos II	No Speakee English
Yessica Amadis	Smoking Phone Woman
Patrice A. Duffy	Nice Woman Delivery
James Price	Hardware Store #1
Juan Carlos Perdomo	Hardward Store #3
Eunice Wong	Dark Hallway Delivery
Yaron Prywes	Young Prep Delivery
Kevin Karagulian	Chicken or Beef,Cyring Baby
Alia Carpenter	Mother with Crying Baby
Tim Hummel	Fighting Couple Guy
Althia A. Cline	Fighting Couple Woman
Rory Kelly	Dog Hallway Delivery
Michael Fuehrer	Mail Order Faster
Monica Kester	Thank You Delivery
B.J. Anthony Pass II	Bad Hair Day
Cailin Pitt	Barber Shop Kid,Barber Shop Mom
Ronald Garret	Barber
Joe Franza	Not a World Delivery
Harold Edmondson	Fork Couple Guy
John Sloan	Discount Customer
Barbara Levenson	Long Hallway Delivery
Claudia Ganzales	Spanish-Speaking Teen
Baqi Abdush-Shaheed	Clean the Shrimp
Gil Selinger	Only Euros
Preet Pannu	Only Euros Wife
Amy Daniels	845 West End
Tony Roach	Change Man
Devin Haqq	Elephants and Tigers
Josh Wick	Elephants and Tigers' Friend
Luca Bigni	Quiet Teen Delivery
Peter Camacho	Other Half of the Chicken
Angel Feliciano	Ketchup on the Fries Guy #1
Julio Lugo	Ketchup on the Fries Guy #2
Edwin Banyar	Ketchup on the Fries Guy #3
Omar A. Franco	Hip-Hop Apartment Man
Omar Jennett	Hip-Hop Apartment Man
Amin Joseph	Hip-Hop Apartment Man
Jeron Moss	Hip-Hop Apartment Man
Jake Walker	Hip-Hop Apartment Man
Chris Espinal	Six Girls, Six Numbers
Sandra Cartagena	Spanish-Speaking Mother
Sylvan Wallach	Side-Door Delivery
Anetra V. Humphries	Last Delivery
Andrew Ko	Last Delivery
Lieghton Whezler	Mugger #2
Vickeya Miller	Take-Out Customer
Peter Corrigan	Take-Out Customer
Helen Corringan	Take-Out Customer
Karina Sturdivant	Take-Out Customer,Take-Out Customer
Gary Garcia	Take-Out Customer
Wilson Rodriguez	Take-Out Customer
Fausto Peralta	Take-Out Customer
Alexander Johnson	Take-Out Customer

Technical Credits

Sean Baker

Shih-Ching Tsou

Sean Baker	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Shih-Ching Tsou	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Isil Bagdadi	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Take Out is a fine example of digital video's virtues. This fascinating, sharp-witted, and moving drama would probably never have been funded on a 35 mm budget, and its bare-bones black-and-white videography and fly-on-the-wall improvisatory feel exemplify DV's ability to capture all manner of everyday human interaction with intimacy and immediacy. Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, who co-wrote and co-directed Take Out, use a deceptively simple setup and a documentary style to fully immerse the audience in Ming Ding's (the excellent Charles Jang) world, and it's a way of life that few viewers have probably taken the time to contemplate. Anyone who doesn't work in a service job is more likely to identify (or try to resist identifying) with the deliveryman's varied Upper West Side customers. These interactions are important to the movie's viewpoint, but at its core is what goes on inside the little takeout restaurant. There, the closeness of the camera and the sharply etched performances (particularly the comically scene-stealing turns of Wang-Thye Lee and Jeng-Hua Yu) give the movie a vivacious clarity. In these scenes of people working and going about their daily lives, Take Out is vibrantly true-to-life in a way that few fictional movies manage. Baker and Tsou hedge their bets, cramming the movie's final third with a bit too much incident. A couple of plot twists strain credulity, but the filmmakers end things on just the right note. With antecedents dating back to Italian neorealism, Take Out still manages to feel wonderfully fresh. It's independent American filmmaking at its most vital.

All Movie Guide - Josh Ralske